Friday 30 June 2017

The Metaphorical Boat Spotify Playlist - May/June 2017



For those of you who like your musical recommendations in playlist-able Spotify form, on a bimonthly basis The Metaphorical Boat posts a selection of songs that we have been enjoying over the prior eight weeks or so, containing songs that we've written about, new songs that we haven't written about but are enjoying nonetheless, and a few older but fantastic tracks that are currently floating our Metaphorical Boat.

Below you can find our playlist of songs that we really enjoyed in May & June 2017 2017. If you like what you hear, or just want another playlist to add to your growing list of playlists, then we really hope that you'll take the time to visit the playlist on Spotify and give it a follow. You never know, your new favourite song of all time could be somewhere on this playlist!

This month's playlist feature songs from established artists like Liam Gallagher, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Radiohead, Alvvays & The War on Drugs, songs from newer acts such as Fjokra, Sam Fender, Apache Darling, The Rhythm Method & Tom Adams, plus local acts like Lauren Bird (the most recent guest of our podcast), Glass Wings, Emmet McGonagle, TOUTS & Isobel Anderson. Lots of great music from lots of great people for your ear-based amusement.



In addition, as of 2017 The Metaphorical Boat has started a rotating playlist of songs, which we will update on a regular basis. You've seen it on the sidebar of our blog, now you get to see it in a blog post as well. Hurrah for duplication!

As soon as we come across a new song that we like, it will automatically go to the top of this playlist, and we will remove a song from the playlist as soon as it has been on it for 2 months, so if you give it a follow, you will always have a fine conveyor belt of fantastic music courtesy of us at The Metaphorical Boat. You can find the playlist as it stands as of now below -


Monday 26 June 2017

Vokxen - Blood Vein


We haven't mentioned Co. Antrim based synth-pop quartet Vokxen on the blog for quite a while, last spilling digital ink on their behalf back in 2015 following the release of their debut single "Somebody". They've kept something of a low profile since then, although they were selected to be mentored as part of local music hub Oh Yeah! Centre's Scratch My Progress scheme.

They're starting to kick back into action now, and on the strength of their new single "Blood Vein", they are going to garner quite a bit of attention indeed. The song is a strong stormer of a synth-pop song, which called to mind the sound of late New Order, with strong, unconventional (for this genre of music anyway) vocals that may appeal to fans of London Grammar.

"Blood Vein" is available to download, in exchange for a modest fee, now.

Friday 23 June 2017

BRØR - Backburner


It's quite a speedy return for us at TMB to BRØR, the fraternal duo from Armagh whom we last featured on the blog back in April with their driving rock debut single "Something New", which helped them to win Chordblossom's Kickstart competition. 

Which leads us on to the band's new single "Backburner", a song that has already won some love with the good people at Fresh On The Net and picked up some airplay on BBC 6music. "Backburner" sees a real change of pace for BRØR, being quite a sparse track underpinned by an arpeggiated guitar, and is a narrative driven song about being eaten alive by marital mistrust. It's a real bolt from the blue track from them, but one that is a rather fine one indeed.

The video's pretty great as well, and offers a bit of light relief from the somewhat dark lyrics, featuring a magician, puppetry and drag.



Tuesday 20 June 2017

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 02 - Lauren Bird

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.


Our guest on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is Strabane singer/songwriter/ukulele wielder Lauren Bird, who sits down with Christopher to talk about her new album, "The Inbetween", scoring soundtracks, loving pop music, and what the music scene is like in Strabane.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:



Find out more about Lauren Bird on -
Facebook Twitter Website | Bandcamp

Saturday 10 June 2017

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 01 - Owen Denvir

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.


Our guest on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is Belfast singer/songwriter/viola player Owen Denvir, who sits down with Christopher to talk about his classical upbringing, the differences between the music scene in Edinburgh and Northern Ireland, his "Motion Picture Soundtrack E.P", and about receiving support for his intricate cover videos from Coldplay.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:



Find out more about Owen Denvir on -
Facebook Twitter Website | Bandcamp