Top 100 of 2016 (Part 4)

It's part four of our countdown, now taking us from 70 - 61! Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

70 James Morrison - I Need You Tonight (Released: March)

69 Nzilani - Never Be (Released: May)

68 Mayer Hawthorne - Love Like That (Released: May)

67 Jamie Lynn Spears - Sleepover (Released: June)

66 Izzy Bizu - White Tiger (Released: March)

65 We Are Z - GOLDIGAZ (Released: September)

64 Symmetry - Gotta Wake You Up (Released: September)

63 Richard Ashcroft - This Is How It Feels (Released: May)

62 Panic! At The Disco - Emperors New Clothes (Released: January)

61 Ms Henrik - Like Lovers Do (Released: September)

Review - We Are Z - Animal

We had the pleasure of interviewing We Are Z recently ahead of their release of single 'Goldigaz' and also got to see them performing live last week supporting Detroit rockers Electric Six, the set from the French band an eclectic mix of hooks, open shirts and Cecil the Lion masks. At the gig we also managed to grab a copy of their debut album.

'Animal' is an eccentric album but it's packed with variety and hooks a plenty and it's certainly an album you won't get bored with. Short instrumental opener 'The Jungle Beasts Are Fast Asleep' with a strong choral, wintery feel bleeds into first track proper 'Walkaway', a Kaiser Chiefs-esque pop number with a strong beat and foot-tapping rhythm. Though the chorus may be pretty simple there's something quickly catchy about the track thanks to its bass riff and driving forward style, with a throwback 80s vibe. The third track - 'Metropolis' - is a ballsy, pop-rock number with a fun falsetto vibe to the chorus and a catchy vibe to the lyrical bridge, like Freddie Mercury meets Franz Ferdinand.

'Knucklehead' is a less distinctive track compared to the others but still has fun rock vibe, whilst the rhyming titled 'The Girl With the Scar in the Land of the Tsar' is a short, stripped-back number which feels more like a poem set to music.

'Easy' has a great rhythm to it and a funky, well produced rhythm with some top synth action, making more quite an ethereal experience.

'Fadeaway', bringing the album up to its half-way point, is the next big number on the record and feels like a future single. With a hooky guitar riff, quickly building vocal pattern and a big chorus that mixes the Police with Franz Ferdinand, this is a big favourite of mine.

As if to prove most conventions wrong where albums tend to start off great and front load their tracks, 'Animal' appears to be the opposite. 'Falling' is one of the best on the album, with a simple but memorable chorus and a funky vibe and faster-sections that create a really radio-friendly number. 

'Glorious Moon', a piano-led interlude, like track five, feels like a little break but is well done, whilst the title track is the first of four big hitters. 'A.N.I.M.A.L.' with its bass-heavy opening, Red Hot Chilli Peppers-like lyrical delivery and catchy vocal hook, is superb and is surely a future single. Lead single 'Goldigaz' is the best track on the album, it's opening 'La-la-la' riff immediately grabbing you. Throw in a catchy bridge and chorus and it's pop-rock vibe proves to be a winner. 'Airbrush' continues the powerful showing at the end the record, its Queen-like rhythm and breakdowns adding to the moment.

'I Like It', a favourite from their live show, completes the quartet of highlights on the album,the repetition of the title and the musical backing making for a great little pop-rock number. The album then concludes with short number 'Almost There' which ties things up in a quick, enigmatic way.

We Are Z's 'Animal' is one of the best albums I've heard this year with many standout tracks that feel like singles, with a range of interesting lyrical hooks, music choices and something different appearing every track. 'Animal' is definitely worth a listen. (7.5/10)

KBPS Interview: We Are Z

We Are Z are an indie-pop band with members from London, Paris and Toulouse who have a new single out called ‘Goldigaz’ on the 30^th September on the same day as a launch party at Cargo in Shoreditch, London.

Here at KBPS we spoke to member and lead singer Gabriel “Gabby” Cazes and began be asking him to describe the new single.

“It’s a song about money and what we do with money, all the thing that comes with the idea of money. It describes the world of finance and drugs and, in a way, all the negative things that can come with it.”

The song takes inspiration from recent events and stories from people they have met in different places. “For example you go and play in Russia and you end up in a club with really rich people that don’t know what to do with all the power they have, and it’s really inspiring to be around people like that!”

With the band’s press release boasting them to be an ideal band for a post-Brexit world, I asked them if they would be flying the flag for Europe.

“Maybe! Why not?” he told us before moving on to talk about the themes of decadence in the song’s video.

“It’s like the film Wolf of Wall Street. I think there’s an idea behind the decadence that comes with the idea of money. Of course we can’t do anything without money so we have to deal with it; it’s the fight between these things.”

Making the video for ‘Goldigaz’ was, according to Gabby ‘crazy’ but fun to make, like a two-day party. “We did a collaboration with two Icelandic directors who came to Paris and we did two days of crazy shooting in some houses and outside Paris, and for the occasion we dressed up as pimps and we put on wigs and make-up and we brought fake Chinese music to throw around.

“[The video] is quite colourful and really extreme and it was really intense, the whole experience.”

Listening to the music of ‘We Are Z’ makes it clear that they have a wide range of influences. “We all come from different places in terms of music. From my side I was raised in France so I listened to a lot of French music like Serge Gainsbourg and then I started to listen to rhythm and blues [at quite a young ago], American bands and roots, black music and then a phase of jazz music, and then I started to listen to some seventies rock and roll!

“I have modern influences too. I really like Damon Albarn and all the different projects he does, but you can always recognise his sound, and I’d love to achieve something like that, being recognisable but with influences.”

‘We Are Z’ are working now on their new album called ‘Z Is Not X’. Gabby gave us an update on the project. “We’ve finished with all the songs and we’re in the mixing process and trying to find the visuals, which I like to work on. It’s like being pregnant, and that the child is going to come in a few weeks and you have to be ready for it, and you want it to be really great. But it’s really exciting. It’s our first album and we think it’s going to be great!”

With the album out at the start of  November, the band are taking part in a 25-date tour with Detroit rockers Electric Six in the same month, which came about through a meeting with the band’s tour manager. “He really liked us and he said if we want to do it it’s hear for us. We said yes, totally. We actually opened for them in Islington last year and it went very well, so we are excited to do this tour.

“It’s going to be the biggest tour we have done so far, so it’s going to be very intense and exciting!”

Describing the band’s live sound as ‘very lively’, Gabby said the live versions make their songs even more dynamic. “We put on a show, with costumes on stage, and we really try to grab the crowd and make people dance. We like to make it happen!

“All the subjects of the songs are quite heavy, observational songs about the human zoo, so we want to party on those heavy subjects. When you come to a show, you’ll be jumping around and seeing us going crazy and throwing fake money at the crowd, and big explosions!”

Looking ahead, the band are keen to continue doing more touring and perhaps festivals next summer and touring Europe. “We’ll be writing songs, meeting the crowds, being inspired, doing great songs and great shows. The live experience is really important to us, and we just want to tour a lot!”