Chris Tall - Time of Your Life

Here at The Metaphorical Boat we have always had a wee soft spot for a slice of well constructed "sax-house", i.e dance songs which feature the prominent use of a saxophone in their production. We've very much enjoyed songs like "Changes", "Vandaag", "Jubel", and yes, even that Moldovan Eurovision Song Contest entry from 2010 which seems to have unconsciously spurred off the whole sub-genre in the first place.

Which brings us nicely to the latest single by Swedish producer Chris Tall. He had a minor UK dance hit this year with the catchy, albeit mildly irritating "Duckface". The follow-up is "Time Of Your Life", a well constructed piece of pure dance pop, topped lovingly with a highly infectious saxophone riff. It's been stuck in our heads for the last few days since we first heard it, so if you're looking for the closest thing to a real, live earworm in 2015, you'd be hard pressed to find something better than this.

"Time Of Your Life" is out now.

Kassassin Street - Talk In Riddles

We have very much enjoyed the output of Portsmouth band Kassassin Street over the last few months, so it's nice to see a new track from the band premiering. "Talk In Riddles" is perhaps one of the most electronic-sounding song the band have released to date, calling to mind some of the more electronic-styled songs of Bloc Party.

"Talk In Riddles" is taken from their "Radio Silence" E.P, which is out now.

Blossoms - Charlemagne

If you've been listening to Radio X the past few weeks then you're probably rather familiar with "Charlemagne", the new single from Stockport 5-piece Blossoms, given that it's been their 9th most played song in the past month. But for the benefit of anyone who hasn't heard it on account of not knowing what the heck Radio X is, then we've got it here for your aural pleasure, and what a delightful song it is.

Taking its name from the first Holy Roman Emperor, "Charlemagne" sound like a cross between James and all that 80s pop you pretend you only listen to ironically, when deep down you genuinely, positively love it. It's got one of the catchiest choruses that we've heard all year, and given the love the band have been receiving recently, a rather rosy 2016 is within their grasp.

"Charlemagne" is the title track from the band's upcoming E.P, which is out on October 30th.

Pleasure Beach - Dreamer To The Dawn

It's been a good few months since we were first introduced to Belfast based Pleasure Beach, a band formed from the ashes of perpetual blog favourites Yes Cadets, through their excellent debut single "Go", a pulsating slice of driving rock that is very much in our top 3 songs released in 2015 called "Go" (alongside efforts by both Public Service Broadcasting and The Chemical Brothers). That song received a fair amount of love on the blogosphere, which has set them up nicely for the release of their debut E.P this month, on which it features.

The title track of said E.P is "Dreamer To The Dawn", which follows on nicely from the latter in sharing the same "Bruce Springsteen for the 21st century" sound that The War on Drugs have championed for the past few years. "Dreamer" is bit slower and a bit heavier on the keyboards than their debut, although it does have a stronger central guitar hook and is definitely more stadium friendly.

Dreamer To The Dawn" is an impeccable follow-up single from Pleasure Beach, which has solidified their perfect hit-rate of tunes to date. Although it might be a little premature, but we may have just found ourselves a band who are going to break through in a massive way in 2016.

The "Dreamer To The Dawn" E.P will be released on October 30th.

The Death of Pop - Gardens

Bournemouth based jangle-gazers The Death of Pop caught our attention last year with their fantastic single "Whenever", followed by their subsequent E.P "Fifths". Since then, they released an E.P over the summer (which features the short but sweet "Rayban Party"), and are now gearing up to release a new single as part of the Too Pure Singles Club.

"Gardens" is a song which pays tribute to the botanical influences of the band (seriously - this is an actual quote from their press release - "Without the tender co-cultivation of music and plants...The Death of Pop would be a very different band"). Once again, the song demonstrates the band's nous for mixing up post-punk, jangle-pop and shoegaze in their own delectable fashion.

"Gardens" will be released as a 7" single later this month.