Not Giving It Out
By Nadia Reid
Apparently, the lines bookending this – ‘’Write what you like about me (buddy), I’m not giving it out no more” – is dedicated to someone who Reid describes as “a renowned NZ ‘music journalist’ as a response to a nasty review. Which just makes you wonder firstly, who it was, and secondly, are there any “renowned” NZ music journalists anymore? Apart from the guy who writes most of this column? And no it wasn’t him. Have to say, lyrically it’s not exactly Nick Cave’s Scum or one of those many Bob Dylan songs when it comes to critic-bashing. The song sits alongside the electric guitar atmospheres of her most recent album Enter Now Brightness but also harks back to her folkier, earlier Joni-er days. There’s some quite Song to the Siren phrasing on a song that starts out as a slow murmur but builds into something you’d wave your phone above your head for in an outdoors setting. That said, there was a temptation to write something nasty about it – oh I don’t know, isn’t four minutes ten seconds just a bit long? – in the hope that I might too suffer a Reid diss track as nice as this. – Russell Baillie
Up Late
by Mohi
Te reo soul singer from Tāmaki Makaurau, Mohi picked up Best Te Reo Māori Album and Best Male Artist at the Māori Music Awards 2024 among other honours, and here drills down smoothly into troubles which have beset him recently when his brain was working overtime. Sleeplessness wears him down and he’s losing focus on this slippery and smooth piece of heartfelt soulfulness, right down to the spoken word passage which closes it. From the soon-come album The Flowers That Grow From Concrete Pavements. A heavy issue with a light touch. – Graham Reid
The Things About Us
by Kaylee Bell
Confidently adopting the adage, “if it ain’t broke y’all . . .” expat Bell again embeds herself deep in the memorable language, imagery (“blue skies fading like your blue jeans”), production and musical motifs of Nashville country. Another instalment in advance of her forthcoming album Cowboy Up which will include Song For Shania. Bell says as a small-town girl (born in Waimate) she dreamed big and being just like Ms Twain, who for a brief time, ended up in the South Island herself. Fortunately, she had the talent to back that up, this being further evidence of her populist and popular country pop-rock. Tip o’ the Stetson to her. – Graham Reid
Bus Back to Richmond
by Lucy Dacus
Lucy Dacus certainly proved there was life after the Grammy success of singer-songwriter supergroup boygenius with her third solo album Forever Is a Feeling, which came out in March. But already she’s on to the next thing with this ballad, a track which suggests the already quite full “great songs of New York songbook” just got another page.
Los Angeles
by Big Thief
Big Thief, venerable American indie folk rockers now with five albums behind them, are heading towards their sixth Double Infinity, due out September 5. This song is a very good reminder of their ability to create an entire world in one big, foggy, rootsy groovy song. And it is a track which suggests the already quite full “great songs of Los Angeles songbook” just got another page. – Russell Baillie
The Key of Victory
by the Lemonheads
Those longtime and very patient Lemonheads loyalists may well anticipate with excitement the forthcoming album Love Chant (October 24), two decades on from their last studio album of originals. But this rumbling, unpolished slow-grower advance single doesn’t exactly shout indie rock, power-pop or country rock which have all been in his armoury.
In a baritone, Evan Dando is a barroom philosopher as he speak-sings his way through thoughts on lost friends, going separate ways and so on over weaving acoustic guitars.
“I was trying to do like a [Lou Reed] Street Hassle vibe,” he has said. An interesting album track but an unusual single. – Graham Reid
Take Me To the Pilot
by Saint Etienne
Although hedging their bets a little, 1990s Brit electro-pop stars Saint Etienne, the partnership of Bob Stanley (now author of many a great pop history book) and Pete Wiggs, have indicated the forthcoming album International (September 5) will be their last. The advance songs are the bright dance-pop Glad and this one which is a beautifully mysterious piece co-written with Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll. So the pilot that airy regular vocalist Sarah Cracknell wants to see is going to land near the Mediterranean dancefloor anyway. Quite seductive. – Graham Reid
Kirby’s World
by Alphabethead
More disruptive beats, samples, and left-field electronic pop – following the thumping, recent single I’m Lucy Lawless – from busy local David Morrison (aka Alphabethead) who has his My Name is David album due soon. A sprightly little piece which hints at a playfulness not always evident in previous releases. – Graham Reid
Reverse
by Sanoi
Mostly weightless electronica with off-kilter beats and an ethereal vocal sample makes for an interesting entry in internal-movie category by this local techno artist whose mix’n’match here is neither dancefloor nor ambient but a smidgen of both. Very clever and an album track from the forthcoming Augenblick due by the end of the year. – Graham Reid
New Year New Idea
by Erase Everything
Despite the somewhat nihilistic band name this local outfit – which includes former members of Pluto, Bleeders, and others – here deliver a neatly underplayed slice of serious alt-rock looking at what destruction we’ve wrought on the planet and the consequences: “We only have ourselves to blame.” The brooding mood, booming bass, swathes of guitars and restrained atmosphere mean the whole thing holds attention for its five minute-plus running time. Quite different from the wall of sound Glass Souls and a real art-rock enticement for the EP due by year’s end. – Graham Reid
Loon
by Ivy
Ōtepoti Dunedin’s quintet here kick off this ambitious and commanding song with their head in Velvet Underground territory but pull it steadily into dramatic art rock which bares its chest like the late Jeff Buckley, then comes over all broody on what they describe as a “love-hate letter to their hometown”. Previous singles which showcased their diversity suggest an album should be worth hearing. Maybe that’s the exciting news being announced in a few weeks. – Graham Reid
D Purcell, Morpheus Thou Gentle God
by Sounds Baroque, Helen Charlston mezzo-soprano
Sure, you know Henry Purcell – Dido & Aeneas and all that – but do you know Daniel (1664-ish to 1717)? Like most people living more than 300 years ago, the details of his life are hazy. He was either Henry’s brother or cousin and may have completed the opera The Indian Queen after Henry’s death. It’s perhaps unfair to say he wasn’t in Henry’s league – who was? – but he knew his way around a song, as this piece, taken from a new album by the superb mezzo Helen Charlston, shows. – Richard Betts
