Thursday soundcheck: 3 tracks worth knowing before the weekend - 20/08
Every Thursday, we pick songs that deserve a spot in your weekend playlist. No real theme, no rules — just good music we think you should hear. This week, we’ve got debut singles and a ghostly ballad taking you on a haunted journey.
★ Revenge of the Bond Girl - Bond Girl ★
“Take my man served on the rocks”
Bond girls are frequently pointed to as an example of female objectification in film — introduced through the camera's sexualized framing, often narratively disposable, and saddled with joke-like names. On their debut single, London's Bond Girl decide enough is enough and hand the girl the mic instead. ‘Revenge of the Bond Girl’ makes a powerful statement against the male gaze by giving the female character a voice. Frontwoman Esme uses the track as a piece of alternate-history wish fulfillment: the Bond girl finally gets to strike back. As a queer songwriter drawing on her own experiences with men, Esme turns what could have been a straightforward feminist statement into something more personal and cathartic, giving her heroine the justice reality rarely offers. While many bands take the risk of mixing genres, Bond Girl does it seamlessly and the Samba bridge at the end of the track is just the cherry on top. An impressive debut single for a band who only just formed five months ago.
☆ Happy Sunny - Delight ☆
For a debut single from a band barely out of their mid-teens, Happy Sunny’s ‘Delight’ carries itself with surprising confidence. The Leitrim four-piece — James McFadden (vocals/rhythm guitar), Cian Brett (lead guitar), Caydn Maguire (bass), and Adam Dallat (drums) — wear their 90s influences openly, with a bit of Smashing Pumpkins-style melodic crunch running through the whole thing. The track sits comfortably within the UK alt/indie guitar tradition: clean, chiming riffs run through with just enough grit to keep it from sounding too neat. Solid first swing. These lads clearly know their record collection, and they already seem like they’ve found their sound.
★ Frances Stewart - Do you know you haunt my dreams? ★
Frances Stewart sings like she's already half a ghost herself, that ethereal voice drifting over gothic, folklore-drenched songwriting. On ‘Do you know you haunt my dreams?’ she plays a spectral woman calling out into the dark for a love she can't let go of, wrapped in an electronic soundscape. There's no big dramatic swing here — just the same scene replaying over and over until it tips into something a little unhinged. You can hear the loop in the production itself, phrases and textures circling back like they're stuck in the narrator's head along with her. Nothing about this sounds like it's trying too hard to be spooky, it’s properly haunted, with just enough electronic pulse under the surface to make it feel like it's still happening right now.