I AM
By Stan Walker
Undoubtedly this plus-size anthem for the US movie Origin, will get Stan Walker noticed in parts of the world he hasn’t been noticed before. You might also get the feeling it would have worked just as well on, say, a Lion King sequel (one of its co-writers is onetime stage Simba, Vince Harder) as it would on Origin, the new film by director Ava DuVernay who filmed some of her previous A Wrinkle in Time in NZ. Whether a song largely in te reo quite coheres to a film adapting Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, a book comparing the American racial experience with India’s caste system and the Holocaust remains to be seen when the credits roll on Netflix sometime in the New Year. Promisingly, DuVernay’s Civil Rights era film Selma won the Oscar for best song – the John Legend-Common track Glory. – Russell Baillie
Take Me Home, Country Roads
By Lana Del Ray
Ms Del Ray joins the Country Roads club, where previous members who have delivered nice versions of the song originally made famous by John Denver have included Olivia Newton-John and Toots & the Maytals. Unusually, for Del Ray, it’s all over in under 3 minutes. - Russell Baillie
I Just Want You to Be So Happy
By Liam Finn
Liam Finn takes a break from working for the Crowded House family firm to start releasing his own one-man-band pop tunes again for something called his “Hyperverse Project”.
This first one’s a fuzzy-guitar falsetto-voice delight, complete with a slightly alarming semi-naked video. – Russell Baillie
Puppet
by Dora Jar
The New York native opened for Billie Eilish last September in Auckland and brought such a unique fire and energy to her performance, somewhat of a requirement to fulfill the experimental nature of her songs. In Puppet, her playfulness and ability to go from 0-100, both vocally and production-wise, reign supreme. There’s also nice storytelling nestled within the welcome theatrics, depictions of escaping a burning building and hallucinating from a poisonous pie – all within three verses. – Alana Rae
Boyhood (ITEIAD Sessions)
by The Japanese House
The Japanese House, stage name of English indie pop musician Amber Bain, is renowned for layers upon layers of harmonies to the point she was accused of being heavy-handed on the autotune. But alas, it’s just what she sounds like, proven by her recently released live sessions of songs from her June album In the End It Always Does. It’s a calming rendition of the track about self-realisation and growing up, pared back enough to turn your focus more toward the lyrics than the original version might allow. The little fiddle-like string solo is also a highlight. – Alana Rae
Moon Power
by Memory Foam
Don’t let the band name or song title fool you: there’s nothing soft or folksy hippie about this 2 minutes of searing, post-punk, synth-rock sci-fi noise from a band who have a kinship with Wax Chattels and DieDieDie. The impressive video by Michael Logie (Mint Chicks) is a blood-soaked showstopper and the perfect accompaniment to the psyched-out horror theme. A taster for an album to follow their thrilling, high-revving and confrontational Steel Magnolias of last year. – Graham Reid
Get That Shot
by Jujulipps
Strident, rapid-fire rap from Tāmaki Makaurau’s emerging Afro-Kiwi star who has opened for Sudan Archives and Melodownz, done the hard yards at festivals and follows her successful and clever single Saucy (also on the new Get That Shot EP) with this immediately grabbing sound which brings a harder edge into the current wave of locals delivering soft summer songs. Loud works better. – Graham Reid
Taku Ngākau
by Dillastrate
Peace, love, mana, whānau and a message of positivity with a slow, soulful vibe aimed at the summer charts and capturing the mood of beach days. With a tweak of catchy synths, Henare Kaa and Tim Driver uplift te reo and take the breezy sound into a place between a Stevie Wonder ballad and a head-nodding groove. Tasty. – Graham Reid
Haunted
By Shaun McGowan and the Popes, Sinead O’Connor
From the memorial department: A sad 1995 song that just got much sadder with the passing of Shane MacGowan. It originally appeared on the Sid & Nancy soundtrack and was revived in the 1990s for another film with Sinead O’Connor taking over from Pogues bassist Cate O’Riordan who originally sang it all by herself. – Russell Baillie
R. Strauss, Oboe Concerto in D AV144.
by Douglas Boyd oboe, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Paavo Berglund conductor.
Has any composer’s Indian summer been more sun-baked than Richard Strauss’s? Between 1945 and his death in 1949, Strauss produced three genuine masterpieces in Metamorphosen, the Four Last Songs, and this joyous concerto. It was written for oboist John de Lancie, who went on to become director of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music. In 1945, though, de Lancie was a corporal in the US Army, deployed in Germany. One day he knocked on Strauss’s door and asked whether the composer had considered writing an oboe concerto – proving that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Happy summer, everyone. – Richard Betts
Listen to the Songs of the week: 2 December on Spotify.
