Now Hear This: New music from Niall Horan, Christine and the Queens and Another Sky, plus spotlight artist Obongjayar

In her weekly column, our music correspondent goes through the best new releases of the week

British-Nigerian artist Obongjayar (Duncan Loudon)

I’m not entirely sure how many people care about new music this week when the Oscars are about to kick off (make sure you follow The Independent’s live coverage before, during and after the ceremony), but I reckon there’s plenty to get excited about.

My favourite track this week is Christine and the Queen’s resplendent “People, I’ve Been Sad”, with its mournful, sludgy synths and her lyrics, seemingly about becoming withdrawn from the outside world. What I really love, though, is her flitting between French and English in the lyrics – there are certain expressions in French that are so beautiful it would be a crime to translate them: “Adolescence contrariée par un millier de chardons morts/ Marcher pieds nus sur du verre et maintenant tout est plus fort… Adolescence contrariée par une solitude folle/ Maintenant quand je suis dehors le soleil me brûle encore.”

Another Sky, tipped as one to watch by The Independent last year, have returned with the devastating “Brave Face”, written by vocalist Catrin Vincent for a friend coming out of a bad relationship.

“I saw so many parallels between her situation and my own,” she explains. “The lyric ‘you put on your brave face, now, girl’ is something an ex once said to me. To me, putting on a ‘brave face’ means hiding struggle and living in denial.

“I wanted to reclaim those words and transform them into a war cry for myself and her. Instead of telling us to ‘suck it up’, I’m telling us to use our anger instead. The world tells women that if we get angry, we lose our softness and what makes us a woman. That’s not true. I’m asking us to accept our anger as necessary, in order to protect ourselves.”

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Hayley Williams keeps knocking it out of the park with her solo material, this time on the oozing, squelchy “Cinnamon”, which reminds me a lot of the keening electronic sounds by Sylvan Esso. There’s an enigmatic new single from Nadine Shah, “Ladies for Babies (Goats for Love)”, and another from Moses Sumney – “Cut Me”, which precedes part one of his new album, grae. That falsetto will make the hairs on your arms stand up.

Niall Horan has released “No Judgement”, the new single from his just-announced second album, Heartbreak Weather. It’s a big change from his debut, Flicker – while I liked a bunch of the more folk-acoustic, Fleetwood Mac-influenced stuff on there, I’m a fan of what I’ve heard of this album so far. From Japanese-Australian artist Joji, you have the dramatic “Run”, which is full of brooding, dark imagery that provides a backdrop for his soulful voice.

A number of pop artists have suddenly released what feels like a wave of George Michael-inspired singles. There’s “Let’s Be Friends” by Carly Rae Jepsen, which is incredibly Wham! (in a good way, obviously), and also La Roux’s entire album, Supervision, which I reviewed here. If you want something LOUD, try Halsey’s ear-bursting “Experiment on Me” from the Birds of Prey soundtrack, before reading our film critic Clarisse Loughrey’s review of the film. Halsey’s track is right out of the Riot Grrrl, emo-pop queen playbook, with some thrash metal influences and squalling punk distortion.

My spotlight artist this week is Obongjayar, the Nigerian-born, London-based artist who just released a brand new EP, Which Way is Forward? Of his track "10K", which is on this week's playlist, he says: "'10K' is a song about survival. Wanting better for yourself, and how quick to move you have to be if you want to achieve that. Whether you work a 9-5 or whatever, or you're an immigrant reaching for better opportunities, you've got to move quick. The world is changing at lightning speed, match its pace or get runover."

Check out my Q&A with Obongjayar below, and make sure you listen to the EP.

Hey! How's your year going so far?

My year's been really great, really busy, but great. A lot of self discovery, and growth and plenty of work for the upcoming tour and my debut album.

Tell me a bit about your new music – what's been inspiring you lately?

My new music, I feel, is a reflection of how I feel presently about the human condition today and how we going about addressing it - be that with immigration, how we treat people who are different to us, self hate, dependency, love, and friendship. It’s a look into all of that and questions what the best cause of action is. If any.

I was inspired a lot by travelling, and my experiences in transit, and also going back to Nigeria for the first time in over 8 years at the tail end of 2018

What else do you have lined up for 2020?

My friendships and my relationships.

More music, an album, live shows. All that good stuff