gyal like you
by Tom Scott
Tom Scott, of Home Brew and Avantdale Bowling Club fame, is launching his October-released album ANITYA – the first under his own name – with a November 1 show at the Civic. That venue is a sign of both his legendary local status and the perhaps classy musical gentrification of the forthcoming set. That’s evident here on this over-too-soon late-night R&B swoon of a song that confirms the King of Avondale can do a pretty good Prince too. – Russell Baillie
Things Unspoken
By Serj Tankian and Bic Runga
Sometime NZ resident, System of a Down frontman, solo artist, memoirist and composer Serj Tankian is releasing a series entitled Covers, Collaborations & Collages from his vaults. Among them is this, a duet with Bic Runga he wrote and recorded in Los Angeles a dozen years ago near the time he was doing his Elect the Dead Symphony with John Psathas and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. It’s a demo-level production, but a mini rock-opera all its own, with Runga giving it her full Streisand. – Russell Baillie
Don’t Mind If I Do
by Iva Lamkum with Diaz Grimm
Been a long time since we heard much from NZ-born, Melbourne-based Lamkum, her sole album was Black Eagle way back in 2012. Motherhood sidelined her but here is her return with an enjoyable piece of danceable R&B with a strong influence from disco and a rap by Diaz Grimm. A confident return which serves to remind – if you have a long memory – of a distinctive singer who in that earlier iteration had a strong soulful edge. – Graham Reid
Sidekick
by Mim Jensen
This Ōtautahi Christchurch singer-songwriter (an “indie savant” according to her publicity) has been charting a diverse and engaging course across previous singles and the Shadow of the Gift EP (pop-driven country, melodic alt-rock). She now arrives at this, a gritty stab of hard-edged alt-rock with scouring guitars which, understandably, is one of her favourite songs to perform for its rawness, energy and channeling of tough emotions. She’s well on her way – opening for the Beths and Shihad – and now sits comfortably between student radio and rock stations. The funny/serious video sells this too. – Graham Reid
North Country Blues
by Bob Dylan
Something different? Here’s the voice of the young Bob Dylan as heard in New York City at the dawn of the 1960s. Recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 1963, he introduces a folk-country ballad which would appear on his The Times They Are A-Changin’ album the following year. The stark voice and guitar are compelling as he sings of a woman’s hard life and – before we knew the word – globalisation which meant mines closing at home because labour was cheaper elsewhere. It’s a song as relevant today in the declining manufacturing rustbelt of the United States as it was six decades ago. One of the advance singles from the forthcoming Through The Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol 18 1956-1963 due October 31. – Graham Reid
Heavy Metal
by Madi Diaz
The sad-eyed lady song of the week is this plaintive acoustic-with-voice number from Nashville singer-songwriter Diaz whose career has included a stint playing guitar and singing back-up in Harry Styles’ touring band in between her earlier breakthrough albums 2021’s History of a Feeling and 2024’s Grammy-nominated Weird Faith. It’s not a ode to the genre of the gods, but one that’s about growing older and having a hefty load on your heart. One for fans of the boygenius gang and from forthcoming album, the tellingly entitled Fatal Optimist. – Russell Baillie
Togetherness is All I’m After
by The Lemonheads
Against the odds – Evan Dando’s self-destructive behaviour and erratic releases the past decades– the forthcoming Lemonheads album (Love Chant, due October 24) is shaping up as rather interesting and different. We’ve mentioned his baritone barroom balladeer single The Key of Victory, the alt-rock of Deep End (with J. Mascis) and country ballad Sad Cinderella with Juliana Hatfield. So there’s diversity afoot, and this aching vocal over a gritty backdrop finds him confidently back on that home-turf of country-influenced alt-rock where he has been so assured. The long overdue “time to take him seriously” again. As this song says, baby don’t blow it”. – Graham Reid
Ghillie Suit
by Ani Saafa
Tight, dynamically aggressive rock which has escaped from the garage in Pōneke Wellington for a more refined, danceable New Wave post-punk as heard on their previous, pop-melodic single Supermarket Aisles and now this. Still got that tight fist, radio-length energy and outsider positioning. Classy video by Erik Dekker too. Ghillie Suit? Look it up. – Graham Reid
Waiting For Love
by Anna of the North
Anna (from Norway) is enormously popular and here’s why: a formulaic blend of dancefloor pop produced by Sebastian Furre (Avicii); a song which is a bit dream pop-cum-indie; lyrics which play to an obvious audience and get repeated (“I was waiting for love and it’s so unfair”); a breakdown for an AutoTune bit to establish a repeated phrase so the beats can come back ... this is how it’s done, folks. – Graham Reid
Fed Up With Your Job
by Stereolab
Enjoyably fast follow-up to their album Instant Holograms on Metal Film released in May comes this double whammy of Fed Up With Your Job and simultaneously released Constant and Uniform Movement Unknown. The former is a delightfully shape-shifting piece of frothy but tightly delivered pop with dabs of quirky keyboards and Lætitia Sadier’s enjoyably flat and emotionally indifferent delivery (so so French), the latter in French is something like pop-rock as only Stereolab imagine it. These are as much fun as they are slightly bewildering and unpredictable. This is how it should be done, folks. – Graham Reid
