Mind Loaded
by Blood Orange, featuring Caroline Polachek, Lorde & Mustafa
UK producer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Blood Orange (Devonté Hynes) arranges himself quite a choir on this dreamy, airy, melancholy bit of chamber pop, driven by a gently arpeggiating piano before talking a harsh left-turn with a minute to go. It’s one of two advance tracks from his first solo album since 2018, Essex Honey. The Lorde vocal cameos follow Hynes’ cello, bass, synth, and guitar playing on the Virgin track Favourite Daughter and him being a support act on her forthcoming Ultrasound world tour. – Russell Baillie
She Explains Things to Me
By David Byrne, Ghost Train Orchestra
Byrne’s amusing ode to male befuddlement might be partly inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s 2014 book Men Explain Things to Me which popularised the phrase “mansplaining.” But it could also be read as a sweet love song from this spry 73-year-old’s coming solo album, one that sounds like it will be fun to put on the gramophone right after Talking Heads’ Remain in Light at my next rest home happy hour. – Russell Baillie
As Alive as You Need Me to Be
by Nine Inch Nails
Welcome to a brief sub-section of this week’s column devoted to bands you might have once seen at a Big Day Out (younger readers, ask an uncle). Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have had a dignified parallel career as creators of movie soundtracks since the BDO era, while Reznor has occasionally dusted off his old Nine Inch Nails band-brand. Here, under the NIN banner, they unleash the first song off the soundtrack to the new Tron film – Daft Punk did the last one – and the instantly anthemic As Alive as You Need Me to Be should have fans of Reznor’s electro-goth-rock beginnings from his Pretty Hate Machine era wondering where the time has gone? – Russell Baillie
My Mind is a Mountain
by Deftones
And now for your daily dose of angst-filled, shouty, head-crunching, decibel-abusing Californian metal from a band which played the BDO a couple of times. Claustrophobic consciousness metal? “The storm remains and my heart’s entrenched. Fate explores me now. Why do we bathe in this psyche?” It’s a good, loudly delivered, question. – Graham Reid
Desire
by Georgia Knight
Like a sensual trip-hopped Kate Bush, this steamy single from Melbourne-based expat Knight is a deep and smoky dive into interesting new territory. She tours with Folk Bitch Trio in September, and it’ll be interesting to see how something like this slice of nightclub/noir art-pop plays out live. Meantime check it out. If it signals a new album let’s hope she gets on with it. – Graham Reid
Sundog
by Babe Martin
Babe Martin (Auckland’s Zoe Larsen Cumming) possesses an extraordinary voice which here opens high and lonely then just keeps pushing upward as this confident piece becomes a swelling slice of something beyond folk and moves into evocative art music. If we judge people by the company they keep it’s worth noting in her circle is Jazmine Mary, that’s good company. Debut EP Not a Bee, but a Wasp coming soon. Definitely one to watch out for. – Graham Reid
Give Into My Fears
by Jamaica Moana
As on previous singles Living Out West and Keep It Real, this Sydney-based, Samoan-Māori, queer artist – with links to the Hokianga and Waikato – keeps the backing stripped right back so her rap messages come through with clarity. It’s about creating herself, assertion, the drive towards fame (“I’ve been doing this for years”) and never compromising. She’s convincing. Six-song debut EP Bud & Deni (named for her parents) out August 1. -- Graham Reid
Death in the Family
by The Sophs
Who would have thought “WEEZER-like” would become a thing? But here the LA-based alt-pop Sophs tap into a Weezerness with a song which is droll and disturbing (“I need a death in the family to turn my page”) which cleaves a bit too close to Weezer to be totally satisfying. But the message of seeking redemption for past mistakes is interesting. Too soon to send flowers, and this only their second single (their previous Sweat was more convincing) so maybe that Next Big Thing description could go on hold for a while. – Graham Reid
Time
by Curtis Harding
Vocally, American soul man Harding can deliver from the tradition of classic Motown and Stax artists (Temptations, Rufus Thomas, and other raw singers). But on this drum-driven single he initially dispenses with horns and backing vocals which means he immediately catches attention. When those other elements arrive there’s tension and a sense of desperation which cleverly winds down into a moody second half. A crafted and quietly compelling notice of a new, as yet unscheduled, album. – Graham Reid
Fine
by Meg Washington, featuring Paul Kelly
Seasoned Brisbane singer-songwriter Meg Washington ropes in wise elder Paul Kelly for a tight-harmony duet that runs a fine line between subdued country folk ballad and uplifting ode to surviving the storm. “Everything’s going to be fine,” they sing on a gentle song that snowballs into something Cohen-esque and hymn-like. Would suit a choir treatment which brings us to … – Russell Baillie
Didn’t It Rain
by the New Zealand Youth Choir, Karen Grylls conductor
We’ve always produced good choirs. It’s not surprising – famously, more New Zealanders sing in choirs than play rugby. Our leading choirs, though, are much better than good. They proved it again recently during the NZ Youth Choir’s Northern Hemisphere tour, where, under the stewardship of music director David Squire, they’ve won two major competitions. They took top honours at the Grand Prix of Nations at the European Choir Games in Denmark, and a few days later were named Choir of the World at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales. It’s not the first time they’ve claimed the latter title – they won in 1999, too. It’s from that competition that this recording of NZ composer David Hamilton’s Didn’t It Rain comes. Go Kiwi. – Richard Betts
Dig Deep
by Fat Freddy’s Drop
You could spend a long time looking for a track that showed what the late Chris Faiumu brought to Fat Freddy’s Drop. This, from 2021’s album Wairunga and accompanying concert film (see below from 48:20) shows him effortlessly busy in the electronic engine room that he built and powered the band with. – Russell Baillie
