NME’s latest stars of The Cover, Sailor Honeymoon, have created an exclusive playlist to accompany the story’s launch – check it out below.
The South Korean punk trio are on this week’s (August 3) edition of The Cover, a manifestation of NME’s commitment to supporting emerging talent across the globe on a weekly basis. Every week, a rising artist will feature on The Cover – you can read Sailor Honeymoon’s profile here, written by Rhian Daly and featuring photography by Annie Chung.
To accompany their appearance on The Cover, Sailor Honeymoon have curated an exclusive playlist, titled ‘14.5 Hour Flight From Seoul To London’. The mammoth collection features artists from Korea, including Hyangni, Drinking Boys And Girls Choir, Jaurim and Peach Truck Hijackers among others, and acts from the west, like The Breeders and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify below and on Apple Music.
Sailor Honeymoon don’t claim the concept of perfection. Instead, the Seoul-based punk trio have built a world that serves as an escape from the expectations of flawlessness that exist online – just think of the way we all curate our social feeds to only show the best parts of our lives – and as a core part of life in Korea. “If you look at K-pop, everyone has to be beautiful,” guitarist/singer Zaeeun Shin reasons. “Even in terms of personality [in Korean society], you should be really polite to your family. We’re the opposite of that. We’re saying it’s OK to not be perfect and there are other ways you can be.”
The band’s upcoming debut album, ‘The Worst Of Sailor Honeymoon’, is a cathartic celebration of not always being at your absolute best. Across its 13 tracks, Sailor Honeymoon manoeuvre through grievances and mundanities, from shitty partners (‘I Wanna Leave You’) to fleeting finances (‘Money’) and mind-numbing day jobs (‘Paperwork’), but don’t let anything bring them down. “How we feel about society is [woven into] the lyrics, so you can find out how we feel about a lot of things,” bassist Yelim Kim teases.
Read Sailor Honeymoon’s full Cover story here and find out who else has been on The Cover here.
Every year, NME produces 50 Cover stories, showcasing the future of music via in-depth profiles and exclusive photoshoots. Check out our coffee table book NME The Cover 2024-2025, which features the likes of Kneecap, Lola Young, Amaarae, LE SSERAFIM, Oklou and many more.
