FIFTY3FRIDAYS: A MAD WORLD
- Jan 16
- 4 min read
Ever wished that lie-in you promised yourself for New Year’s Day had actually happened and that you’d then stayed in bed for the last 16 days? It seems that the already mad world we lived in during 2025 has taken a sharper turn towards insanity with geopolitical developments ramping up daily over the past two weeks. Internationally, a Trump dominated agenda: Venezuela, shadow vessels, Iran, Greenland, AI, while over here failed politicians rush to join Reform, political commentators are obsessed with U-turns rather than real issues and Storm Goretti came and went.
Photo above from Visit Greenland
While the so-called civilised world is going mad around us, let’s start the music with a message of hope. The ever-prolific Midlands three-piece, The Happy Somethings, has been entertaining us with its lovable brand of music for several years now, while not shrinking from challenging perceptions along the way. Indeed ‘thinking’ is a common thread in the band’s repertoire and the trio has begun the new year with what it describes as a “quietly anthemic, tentatively hopeful start to 2026.”
“Meanwhile” hits you with a little more jangle than the jingle that is a customary feature of many a song from The Happys. Resonant, angular guitar is very much to the front of the mix from the off while three voices in unison look back on past times lighting a wee candle with the hope of positive things to come. Subtle harmonies are peppered here and there, with an abrupt stop two-thirds in signalling an agreeably ramshackle guitar break. Just as Self Esteem affirms in “The Deep Blue Okay” that she might “try today”, here The Happy Somethings doggedly avow “So we try / Because we have to.” Life goes on, indeed.
Photo of Ellur by Sarah Oglesby
Next, a new name to Fifty3Fridays, Yorkshire native Ella McNamara, aka Ellur. The name may be less of a play on ‘allure’ but more reflective of the way her stage name might be pronounced on her home turf of Halifax. Listening to her past singles and EP on Spotify there is a relaxed eloquence to her work and a quiet confidence built of a self-confessed, early ambition to pursue a life in music. That aspiration hits a milestone on 6 February with the release of a debut LP, At Home In My Mind. The album is given a final preview this month in the shape of “Dream Of Mine.”
The song is inspired by Ellur’s quest to achieve her goal, the sacrifices that entails and feelings of selfishness and insecurity about wanting to make it happen. It compares the expectations that come with having a long-term partner - the settling down and the kids - versus a life under the spotlights and concludes that a future needs buy-in from both parties. The maturity in Ellur’s writing is mirrored by the song’s flowing soundtrack and her relaxed Americana-tinged vocals. It could almost be one of her heroes, The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel, on guitar too. It’s hard not to be impressed.
Copenhagen based singer, musician and composer Hannah Schneider crafts thoughtful alternative pop, utilising electronic sounds and diverse instruments in a cinematic sweep. She is particularly inspired by the ambient sounds within her environment and as the daughter of two classical musicians integrates the instrumentation from her past in her world of sonic landscapes. Since releasing her first album in 2009. Hannah has been active in solo recording, producing music for film and TV plus, between 2016 - 2021, as one half of the electronic duo AyOwA. As part of the performance duo Philip | Schneider, she creates spatial compositions and installations that explore the boundaries between music and art.
Hannah has returned this month with the title track from her forthcoming new album, In This Room which is due out on 27 February. The song is a beautiful meditation on personal memories, the rooms we return to and the secrets they hold. Its airy soundscape combined with Hannah’s purity of intonation and vocal elasticity put me in mind of Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes). Driven by piano and cyclical strings, the sympathetic percussion supplied by Øyunn (touring drummer of Danish indie legends, Efterklang) holds everything together organically. This is a song you will want to return to and lose yourself in.
Photo of Westside Cowboy by Charlie Barclay Harris
It has been a pleasure to see the progress of Westside Cowboy since the band won over the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition Final judges with its infectious live stage show and duly went on to open Woodsies Stage on Sunday morning at the 2025 festival. The four-piece who came together as three music students and a graduate in Manchester has this week dropped its second EP So Much Country ‘Till We Get There through Island Records imprint Adventure Recordings. To support the release, here is a video for one of the five tracks, the enduring crowd favourite “The Wahs”, featuring a cameo from Horsegirl’s Nora Cheng. Horsegirl also played Glastonbury so maybe they met there?
“The Wahs” does not hang about. 2 minutes 22 seconds of 90s infused indie-rock with a dash of folk flavoured by Dylan-ish troubadour vocals. Eight lines and lot of bahs, culminating in a brief noise fest, sharpened by layered harmonies. It’s a very DIY sound that hardly needs you to close your eyes to imagine how it would sound live. Westside Cowboy is soon to embark on a short UK headline tour (all venues sold out) followed by a series of European and British dates as support for Geese. You may have to be quick to see them.
Finally today, to return to the opening remarks in this week’s column, here is a reprise of “Mad World”, the 1982 Tears For Fears song reimagined in a hauntingly stark piano cover by Michael Andres & Gary Jules for the soundtrack of Donny Darko, almost 20 years later might be a fitting sign-off. We run in circles. Frank the rabbit would possibly feel quite at home in today’s mad world as well until set upon by ICE agents.
