Primavera Sound 2018 lineup analysis

A few hours after knowing by surprise the lineup of the Primavera Sound 2018, from Indieófilo editorial office we've decide to analyze the bulk of it to review the reasons why this year it is worth to go back to the festival that will be held at Parc del Forum in Barcelona. It is clear that many of the bands have played on previous editions of the Catalan festival, but it is still a delight to be able to enjoy the likes of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Björk, The National, Mogwai, Beach House, Spiritualized, Belle & Sebastian, The War On Drugs, Grizzly Bear, Deerhunter, Father John Misty, The Breeders, Slowdive or Cigarettes After Sex, whose musical styles seem linked to the history of the festival. Outside of that independent style who marks teh main part of the lineup, surprises for good the incursion as headliner of the British Arctic Monkeys, maybe with a new album, who will represent the badly called new brit-pop scene, one of the styles that had historically been left out of Primavera in the form of consecrated bands, but that from the stellar presence of Pulp and Blur at the beginning of the decade seems to have reconciled with the festival.

Matt Berninger, The National – Down The Rabbit Hole 2016 – Photo made by Esther Vicente Garcia for Indieófilo^©

In the same way, Primavera Sound has been one of the few Spanish festivals that have always bet on Hip-Hop and black music trends coming from the United States. This year the big bet about this subject will be Migos, confirmed as one of the big headliners because of being one of the spearheads of the trap movement that is give people plenty to talk about around the world. Next to them highlight 3 world-wide figures of the last decade like Vince Staples, Tyler, The Creator and A$AP Rocky, although we don’t have to forget other names not so well-known for the great public like The Internet, Madlib, Kelela or The Blaze, with sounds closer to pop that tend to dazzle the masses.

A$AP Rocky – Best Kept Secret Festival 2016 – Photo made by Esther Vicente Garcia for Indieófilo^©

In the year of #Metoo, the Catalan festival also takes a step forward in the visibility of women and its quota of female artists increases not only in number but also in quality. With the Icelandic Björk as a great name, Lorde will be the great representative of a new generation that also includes Haim, Warpaint, Fever Ray, CVRCHES, Ibeyi, Lykke Li, Waxahatchee, the local Bad Gyal or the less known Jlin, Sevdaliza or Vagabon. But without a doubt, the great women’s moment of this edition will be the tribute that a legend of the song like the British Jane Birkin will do to Serge Gainsbourg along with an orchestra of up to fifty musicians.

Warpaint – Lowlands 2016 – Photo made by Esther Vicente Garcia for Indieófilo^©

And in the last of the big branches that usually sustain the Primavera Sound, we can’t forget about electronic music, with an expansion of scenarios Primavera Bits and names throughout the lineup of the likes of Arca, Four Tet, Daphni , Dave P., Floating Points and his long-awaited six-hour dj set, John Talabot, Joe Goddard or Lindstrom, thus maintaining a clear commitment to electronic music in a festival that in its early years in Poble Espanyol left a little aside these type of proposals.

Floating Points – Pitch Festival 2016 – Photo made by Esther Vicente Garcia for Indieófilo^©

From here, Primavera Sound remains firm in approaching new proposals that use not to have big letters in lineups of these days but that surely will do it in the not too distant future. Among the new bands that will visit the Catalan city, from Indieófilo we recommend not to miss the concerts of Car Seat Headrest and (Sandy) Alex G, in addition to the Spanish proposals of Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagès or Oso Leone. Special mention deserves the batch of bands that already amazed us past Primavera Club and who will now defend their proposals in the big festival as Gabriel Garzón-Montano, Superorganism, Yellow Days or the Basque band Vulk.

Superorganism – Primavera Club 2017 – Photo made by Esther Vicente Garcia for Indieófilo^©

So, a new edition of Primavera Sound that for the reasons that we have exposed previously is presented as winning from the start, very balanced in what to the different styles is concerned and, in which despite a lower risk in the lineup that in previous editions, has everything necessary to be one of the best editions of the history of the festival.