Weekly Music Roundup: Larkin Poe and Demaro

Week of Dec. 23: This week, Jamaican musician Demaro is ready to make a difference; Larkin Poe is ready to do laundry; James Blunt is ready for his close up.

PREMIERE: Is Jamaican Dancehall “Readi” For Demaro?

While much of the music world has opened up to LGBTQ artists, the style of Jamaican music known as dancehall has gained some notoriety for going in the opposite directon. In the early 90s, the dancehall artist Buju Banton’s single “Boom Bye Bye” advocated killing gay men and actually provoked a counter campaign called Stop Murder Music in the UK. So you can perhaps understand why Demaro, an openly gay dancehall artist, would leave his homeland and set up shop in New York. Today we premiere the music video for his first single, called “Mi Readi.” It’s less fiery than some dancehall music, though it is still sung not in Jamaican Standard English but in Jamaican Patois, as is typical of the style. “Mi Readi” rides along on an easy-going Caribbean beat, offset by some sustained synthesizer lines, and the video is a charmer, shot in what looks to be a Brooklyn laundromat. So Demaro is ready for the world; the question is, is the world ready for Demaro? “London, mi readi,” he sings, then name-checking New York, Dubai, and Tokyo. Kingston is noticeably absent from that list – at least for now…

Demaro’s debut EP Good Vibes Only comes out in June – during Pride month.

Larkin Poe Releases Video for “Mississippi”

Weirdly, a laundromat is the setting for this video as well. The sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell record under the name Larkin Poe, which, as they told us in a Soundcheck session, is an old family name. (Another old family name: Edgar Allen Poe, who was an uncle several generations back.) Larkin Poe are steeped in the sounds of southern blues and gutbucket rock’n’roll, and both sisters are seriously gifted guitarists capable of sliding along the strings to find just the right “wrong” notes – the mark of a great blues artist. Their latest labum, Venom & Faith, has just been nominated for a Grammy, so the two wasted little time in going down to the laundromat to produce a video for the track called “Mississippi.” And when I say they wasted little time, I mean that literally: the clock on the laundromat wall suggests they shot the whole thing in under five minutes. But that’s part of the charm: the song is a tribute to that deep, gritty Delta blues tradition, and it features some of the Lovells’ most timeless guitar and slide guitar playing. 

James Blunt Is Ready For His Close Up

The English pop singer James Blunt will probably always be associated with his mammoth hit single, “You’re Beautiful,” from his 2005 debut LP, but he has displayed an interest in electronic music in some of his recent work which suggests an artist with a restless soul. His latest album, Once Upon A Mind, will be seen as a return to pop form, with ballads and richly orchestrated uptempo numbers. He’s just put out a video for one of the latter, the album track “The Truth.” It sees Blunt walking and sometimes running through London with what appears to be a camera somehow affixed to a spot a foot or so in front of his face. We get a good view of his cheekbones – which are getting into Benedict Cumberbatch territory – while he sings a song about the redemptive power of love in that distinctively adenoidal voice. 

Sharon Van Etten and Norah Jones Play New Version of “Seventeen”

Sharon Van Etten’s 2019 album Remind Me Tomorrow was full of great songs, but the best of the bunch might have been “Seventeen,” her anthemic cry for cross-generational understanding. Now she’s made a slower, more melancholy version of the song with her friend Norah Jones. Yes, that’s right – it’s yet another Weekly Music Roundup in which Norah Jones appears. What can I say, she has great taste in collaborators. Anyway, the new version was done exclusively for Amazon Music, which means you can only hear it if you have a subscription. Fortunately, Van Etten, Jones and band all trooped into the Ed Sullivan Theater to play the song on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. 

Lettuce Wants To Rule The World, In A Good Way

Most people are familiar with the Tears For Feats hit “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” which was a feel-good piece of power pop from the 80s. Now the band Lettuce, fresh off their Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, has released their own version of the song. And no, it’s not instrumental: the band’s keyboardist Nigel Hall handles the vocal chores, and paradoxically, finds he needs to slow down the singing to line up with the band’s considerably faster take on the song. Lettuce’s signature blend of funk, r&b, soul, and rock perhaps gets a little shot of Jamaican reggae in this good-natured cover, and the video, shot in and around LA, is a feel-good exploration of community and family.