Rita Wrote a Letter
by Paul Kelly
A couple of years back I asked Australia’s preeminent singer-songwriter Paul Kelly if any of the characters who populate his lyrics may have wandered out of one song and into another. “I don’t know what the characters do after they wander out of the songs, although I suspect a few of them sort of keep coming back,” he replied. “The guy in To Her Door I think is a bit like the guy in How to Make Gravy and he might be the same guy as Love Never Runs On Time. But they could be brothers or just friends.” His How to Make Gravy has become an Australia Christmas staple, with its story of Joe ringing his family from prison with anguish about his missus Rita, and recipe tips. It was even made into a television film which got a bit of a mixed reception when it screened across the Tasman late last year. Now, with Rita Wrote a Letter, Kelly has extended the franchise, kind of, with a sequel to the original song. Like the first, it’s narrated by Joe who is now out of prison, but his story doesn’t have a happy ending, as it rolls out over a New Orleans piano chug, and slide guitar which sounds like it’s quoting from the earlier song. It’s a fitting bookend, though it does make me wonder what happened to the kid from his other great family saga, Deeper Water. It’s from Kelly’s prophetically titled album Seventy due out November, after he tours in NZ early next month. – Russell Baillie
The Avant Garde
by David Byrne
If anyone can poke at the avant-garde it’s Mr Byrne who was often ahead of the curve himself with Talking Heads, his world music recordings and theatrical stage presentations. George Harrison once quipped, avant-garde means “ ’aven’t gotta clue” and John Lennon said “avant-garde is French for bullshit”. So there are precedents for this deliberately rhythmically clunking song with the Ghost Train Orchestra, where Byrne is more measured in his opinion but opens with this: “I saw a woman in a leotard, now I’m not sure how I fell about the avant-garde, I like the idea, the politics too, but I’m not really sure if that means it’s good”. Another single in advance of his Who is the Sky? album due September 5. More informed, urbane and witty observations from the mind of an outsider on the inside. – Graham Reid
Gospel Plow
by Robert Plant & Suzi Dian
If you didn’t make it to Sunday school today, then this traditional spiritual as revived by Robert Plant with accompanying singer Suzi Dian and the band behind his forthcoming Saving Grace album should meet any belated Bible study requirements. As a song and arrangement, it’s not far away from his two albums with bluegrass star Allison Krauss. But as the unit’s previous single, Everybody’s Song, a cover of a track by midwestern minimalists Low, who Plant has covered twice before, showed it’s all part of an ongoing late-career musical adventure by a man happy not to rest on his considerable laurels as the voice of Led Zeppelin. – Russell Baillie
Saintly
by Michaela Tempers
Former Melburnian now living in Wellington, alt-folk singer and creative writing student Tempers has crafted a small but refined catalogue: four songs for the forthcoming Good Woman debut EP. Her classic, resonant folk voice would slip easily into a compilation alongside Melanie, Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte-Marie, the young Marianne Faithfull, and Judy Collins. From the arresting and quiet opening couplet, “I am a heroine going slowly, I am a hundred years of war”, Tempers brings the notion of saintliness down from a statue of Joan of Arc to everyday heroines in a lyric which taps her literary spirit yet also manages to be intimate and elusive. Extraordinary artist. – Graham Reid
Broken Glass
by Harper Finn
Straight-ahead pop-rock from another in this country’s musical royalty, the son of Tim, who has struck out in his own melodic direction. And here – recorded in upstate New York – he slips easily into that genre of pop craftsmen alongside Jules Shear (popular in the 1980s-1990s), the “songwriter’s songwriter” Ron Sexsmith (new album Hangover Terrace released August 29) and other respected writers who underplay their hand to good effect. Polished and positive pop in advance of the Silo Park album releasing October 31 and a homecoming tour in November. – Graham Reid
Sahar
by Rhian Sheehan and Arli Liberman
This final, six-minute instalment of pre-album singles from the local duo with separate careers in cinematic sounds almost shouts Bladerunner as it delivers an unsettling sonic atmosphere with allusions to Middle Eastern music (also evident in its title). The instrumental album Traces (released September 12) will be a sitting comfortably head trip given the Ridley Scott/Vangelis mood of the first four singles. Relax into it and afterwards you’ll be able to say, “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe ... .” – Graham Reid
Wear and Tear
by Everything is Recorded (feat. Sampha, Florence Welch, Danielle Ponder & Jah Wobble)
As “Everything is Recorded”, producer, artist and XL Recordings label boss Richard Russell has put out a couple of albums in quick succession and now he’s on to the next collaborative thing with a track whose credits look more like a label roster. It can sound like three singers attempting three different songs over the same beat, bassline and a constant noise that makes you worry if there’s a plumbing problem at Russell’s studio – but in a good way. – Russell Baillie
Bowery
by Zach Bryan with Kings of Leon
This comes out the gate slowly until, “Oh sorry … one, two, three, four” and then there’s a brief blast of New Wave rock to establish the hooks before skewing straight into Bryan’s country style given a powerful nudge by Kings of Leon. A story of a broken woman drinking herself into an abyss, the guy who wants her despite it all, a car parked underneath the overpass, thumbing a ride, a billboard which reads “Jesus is Lord” … . It’s country but with a stadium rock punch and guitar solos. Solid, but you’ve probably been down these roads before. – Graham Reid
Sorry Not Sorry
by Pool Kids
Although billed as a “math rock emo” band, this four-piece from Florida here embark on some woozy pop with singer Christine Goodwyne sounding as if she’s just been woken up. It later arrives on something approaching ordinary pop-rock which is quite some distance from complex math rock and angsty emo. Their previous Leona Street single is perhaps a better introduction to their style (more emo-pop than anxious venting) and for their forthcoming third album Easier Said Than Done. True dat, when it comes to defining “math rock emo”.– Graham Reid
Kaufmann, String Quartet No.11: I. Lento
by ARC Ensemble
Have you heard of Walter Kaufmann? I hadn’t, not until this collection of chamber works was released in 2021. If you hail from India, though, he is likely familiar by sound, if not by name. Born in 1907 in Karlsbad (now in Czechia but then Bohemia), by the mid-1930s he felt where the political winds were blowing and left for India. While there, he wrote for the film industry – Bollywood before it became Bollywood. He also wrote the theme tune for All India Radio, music that’s been heard by hundreds of millions of people. You can hear the influence of India in this raga-like string quartet. – Richard Betts
Bonus track not on Spotify playlist
Quicksand
by Neil Finn
One of the nice surprises of Neil Finn’s own set as he hosted the livestreamed Infinity Sessions from his Roundhead studios this past week was a couple of songs he played early, citing them as key tunes in his own development as a songwriter. One was the Carole King sentimental favourite You’ve Got a Friend, the other was David Bowie’s Quicksand off 1971’s Hunky Dory, a song which, with its mad name-dropping of Aleister Crowley, Heinrich Himmler, Winston Churchill and Greta Garbo, blew the young Finn’s mind. He’s performed other Bowie songs through the years, like the inevitable Heroes and Moonage Daydream with side project The Pajama Club. The makings of a solo tribute album? It would have to be called Finn-Ups. Anyway, here’s a rendition of Quicksand from one of his streamed Fangradio episodes in 2020. – Russell Baillie
