Some four and a bit years ago, I was wandering Austin City Limits on my way to see someone or other. I brushed past a stage where no less than eleven people were producing some of the most impressive music I’d heard in sometime. The band, it turned out, were Typoon, an outfit out of…
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If you look in the dictionary for the definition of multi-talented I’m not entirely certain you wouldn’t see a picture of Nigel Powell smiling back at you. For the uninitiated, Nigel is the powerhouse drummer in The Sleeping Souls, the relentlessly touring (and recording) band for Frank Turner. He’s also from Dive Dive, and the…
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If you’ve been craving new Tame Impala, then this one’s for you. After two years since Currents hit home sending shockwaves through the nation, frontman Kevin Parker has decided to revisit the group’s third LP, giving fans their well needed pick-me-up. Sparing three B-sides and two remixes, Parker isn’t holding back – the EP makes up just…
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I have never listened to St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) before this album, and while I feel I need to go and do that now, I am happy that MASSEDUCTION was my introduction to her music and her amazing talent. MASSEDUCTION is, quite frankly, the best thing I’ve listened to in a while. The production…
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I have been a British India fan from the start. I remember playing “Tie Up My Hands” on repeat back in 2007, and since then, I’ve followed their progress and danced in their moshpits in venues and festivals all over Sydney. To say their sixth album, Forgetting the Future is great is an understatement. Their…
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It can’t be easy when you’ve been around as long as the Foo Fighters, both collectively and as the myriad of musical permutations of the individuals within the band, to come up with an album that sounds fresh and exciting but Concrete and Gold, the latest offering by the Foos, is just that. From the moment…
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The Belligerents’ debut album Science Fiction has landed. And you will want to get on board. The long-awaited full-length release from this Brisbane band, who have had the industry buzzing for some time, is out now through Sony. The record is full of all the grand splendour you’d hope for: driving guitars, spaced out keys,…
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Straight off the bat, Go Farther In Lightness is a victory album. It’s a victory of love and loss; a triumph for hope and life. It’s an album with many peaks and just as many moments that make you ponder and appreciate your existence. It’s a compass for those lacking direction. It’s the ‘I may…
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How can a song be anthemic if no one’s ever heard it before? The Creases answer that question in their stunning debut album Tremolow. While there’s been a lot of hype around this beloved Brisbane band since they formed four years ago, they waited until now to release their LP. One of the reasons was…
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Alison Moyet has always been front of mind for me when it comes to female vocalists. Her voice has woven itself steadily through my life ever since I heard “Where Hides Sleep” years ago. Now, with the release of her ninth solo album, Other, I sit in awe still of her extraordinary voice and remarkable…
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LA Clippers fan Vince Staples set the rap game alight with his debut album Summertime ’06. The captivating conscious hip-hop album left fans satisfied, yet hungry for a new project. Enter Prima Donna; the more experimental album which was rather divisive for Vince Staples fans. However, the experimentalist in Vince wouldn’t stop there, as fans…
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This month, well known Aussie rockers Grinspoon are releasing a deluxe edition of their first studio album Guide to Better Living. Celebrating the 20 years it’s been around by adding a load of live tracks to the album list. Grinspoon formed in 1995 and released Guide to Better Living two years later in September. The…
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When “Liability” came out, it sucker punched me right in the face. You start listening to it and you’re like, ‘Oooo this is nice’, and then the lyrics sink in and your face turns red and the tears start welling and then BAM! Emotions! Lorde has a way of doing that. She knows how to…
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What can I say about Ceres that hasn’t already been said – often by me? Ceres is my favourite Australian band, hands down. Their first album, I Don’t Want To Be Anywhere But Here, is one of my favourite albums of all time. Their second album, Drag It Down On You, is a melodious, cathartic,…
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UK indie-rockers alt-J first sent shock waves through the music world back in 2012, following the release of their debut album An Awesome Wave. Pocketing a Mercury Music Prize, an Ivor Novello ‘Album Award’ for songwriting and three BRIT award nominations, the band quickly rose to international acclaim, hooking listeners far and wide with their…
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If, like me, you’re a stressed out over-thinker struggling with the constant sensory input of our increasingly busy lives, then you’ll find this absolute gem by MT Warning to be a much needed oasis of calm and serenity. Mikey Bee manages storytelling and imagery woven together with heart-on-sleeve lyrics, all delivered with emotive and honest…
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To celebrate 25 years in the business, The Waifs have delivered their glorious eighth LP, Ironbark. They asked their fans what they wanted, and delivered a stunningly created 25 song album. All tracks were recorded at the Karl Marx beared guitarist, Josh Cunningham‘s quaint bushland house in rugged Moruya in New South Wales. Still very…
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Let me preface this review by saying I am in love with Laura Marling. I have been since 2013, when she enchanted the entire tent at Splendour in the Grass. Her songwriting shows wisdom and depth beyond her years, and many of her songs make me feel like they’ve been written just for me. I’ve…
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Back in September, I sat opposite Briggs and Trials in Brisbane as they told me about Reclaim Australia, the debut album by their collaborative project A.B Original, and how it stood to shake up not only the Australian music industry, but our social community as a whole. Generally, you learn to take such grandiose claims…
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Solange Knowles‘ A Seat At The Table may very well be the album that brings the artist to breakthrough-levels of success but for those who have been following her music for the last few years, this 21-track epic is the result of a creative talent that has been thriving and developing outside the mainstream for quite some time….
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Sometimes a piece of art becomes so intertwined with a contemporaneous event that true, unbiased analysis becomes impossible. Just as Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was erroneously seen as a response to 9/11, and Bowie’s Blackstar became his swansong, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Skeleton Tree comes in the wake of a tragedy. Halfway through the writing of the album’s material, Cave’s teenage son died in…
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If someone says they’re a Wilco fan, it could really mean a lot of things. Maybe they’re wearing a chambray shirt and cowboy boots, in which case they probably mean they like Being There or AM. Or perhaps they’re high and paranoid, in which case they’re Yankee Hotel Foxtrot fans, or they’re high and loving…
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Christ, there have been some absolutely stellar Australian album releases this year that have captured the full spectrum of emotion, threaded catchy-as-fuck guitar riffs and percussion throughout, and presented it in a rocking format to hungry music fans. Like Horror My Friend, Slowly Slowly and Pretty City before them this year, Ceres have produced a 2016 album that has done…
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Travis Collins has come a long way since taking the prize of Toyota Star Maker Quest (a competition that has kick started the careers of Keith Urban, Lee Kernaghan, and James Blundell to name a few). Now, twelve years later, Travis has released his fifth album, Hard Light. Delving into loss, love, courage – it…
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During my first listen of The John Steel Singers’ new EP, Midnight at the Plutonium, it’s a cold Melbourne winter day, but damn, this album makes it feel like a Brisbane summer afternoon. At just eight tracks, it’s short and sweet, and the funk that seeps through has a good chance of getting you bopping around,…
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It feels like Montaigne’s debut album, Glorious Heights, has been a long time coming. Yeah, she’s been in listener’s ears since being unearthed back in 2011, but it’s not like she’s spent the past five years sitting back resting on the laurels she created as a high schooler. Some might not have blamed her if…
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There aren’t too many good things to come out of illness and disease. Two of them, however, are the first two releases from Sydney band Gang Of Youths. While 2015 was hit by the massive and anthemic concept LP The Positions, 2016 is inevitably going to become enthralled by its follow-up EP, Let Me Be…
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Brisbane artist Emma Louise took the music world by storm at 19 years of age, producing a debut EP that earned her a nomination for the 2011 J Award Unearthed Artist of the Year. A beacon of raw musical talent she soon had a debut full-length album and an ARIA nomination under her belt. Sophomore…
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Hey Geronimo‘s Crashing Into the Sun may be one of the great mis-timed album releases. When it’s 10 degrees, you don’t long for an album full of summer jams and Beach Boys harmonies. Crashing Into the Sun denotes fun and heat, from the glorious beach-body album cover to the Sgt Pepper’s psychedelia. While it may stand in stark contrast to the…
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Rap music has always had an undercurrent of self-examination to go along with its social commentary, but it seems that now more than ever, we want introspection from our artists. From Kanye West’s lexapro lyrics to Kendrick Lamar’s visionary classic from 2015, verses that could have been ripped from the casenotes of a psychologist are…
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