Cinnamon
by Benee
Video and cover artwork trend of the year: Kiwi pop stars in piles of dirt and gaffer tape. Benee might not quite have achieved the potential laundry bills in Cinnamon that Lorde racked up in Man of the Year, but she is wearing a bit more when she’s briefly plopped down on a building site cement mound somewhere in Europe in a clip which bounces between both sides of the Atlantic. Cinnamon is a tangy electropop, kiss-off ditty with a Tik Tok attention span aimed at some guy in Los Angeles (“I wouldn’t stoop so low/ But you went out and screwed all of LA”) that she’s having serious second thoughts about. It’s from her just-announced sophomore album Ur An Angel I’m Just Particles out in early November. It’s got a cover shot with a glove of silver gaffer tape (see above), which, as Man of the Year and Virgin’s artwork showed, Lorde seems to have on bulk order from Bunnings. Benee’s video also contains some serious eyelash acting at the end. – Russell Baillie
Everybody’s Looking at Me
By Eminem
This previously unreleased track is a time capsule from the early 2000s, when hip-hop star Eminem rose above the genre and found the mainstream spotlight and Grammy attention, losing album of the year to Steely Dan in 2001 and Norah Jones in 2003. The Grammys and the MTV awards of the era get a lot of attention in the lyrics which have quite the guest list – Celine Dion, Elton John, Marilyn Manson, Axl Rose, Paul Simon and more. It’s come out of the vaults for the new documentary, Stans, about the rapper and the parasocial relationship of his ardent fans which he memorably encapsulated in the 2000 hit Stan. It might have been rejected from an album at the time but with its crisply funky Dr Dre production and Eminem’s delivery, it’s reminder why he got such a following in the first place. – Russell Baillie
London
by Skepta, Fred Again..
This collaboration between the veteran and genre-curious British MC Skepta with DJ, producer, social media star and posh chap Fred Again.., started out as a track then turned into a five song EP. The first track Victory Lap was a big UK hit but now the whole EP is out, London, with its snowballing headlong rush of dubstep under Skepta’s late-night narrative, just might be the biggest banger of the bunch. – Russell Baillie
One in a Million
by Leisure
A breathy, softly upholstered, piano-based ballad from the ever pristinely chilled Auckland soul-electronica crew. It offers something a little more reflective and engaging and a little less wallpaper-like than their most recent releases, which is a good sign for new album Welcome to the Mood due out in a few weeks. – Russell Baillie
Lucky Star
by Em
Local audio engineer Emily Wheatcroft-Snape (Em) launched herself into the world of catchy pop with her 2024 album Phases and returned with this year’s singles Love to Be and the leisurely loveliness of Go. But Lucky Star – with its gently oceanic melody and pitched between synth-pop and a dream-pop guitar band – sounds a better and more confident bid for attention. Strangely sudden ending, like it runs out of puff. Be alert radio DJs. – Graham Reid
Don’t Leave Me Alone
by Sam Cullen
The spirit of country-rock and the young Springsteen find a place here in this upbeat release by Invercargill’s Sam Cullen – who previously delivered a crunching rock version of Talking Heads’ Burning Down the House for RNZ. It sounds tooled for parties and live appearances. Everybody sing: “ Yes it’s alright, baby don’t leave me alone . . .” – Graham Reid
Nurses
by Dick Move
More fast’n’furious punked up rock with a message from Auckland’s explosive five-piece. Here they bring their disciplined thrash to two minutes of anger at a government which favours landlords profiting over support for essential service workers like underpaid nurses. It asks the age old question, “Whose side are you on?” here as “Where will you be?”. And the chant of “dream, believe, achieve” is title of their new album due November 14. Good video too. – Graham Reid
Kassandra
by Black Lips
Out of Atlanta, Black Lips have bent the boundaries though their enjoyably wayward path with influences from post-punk, obscure 1960s psychedelic bands, alt-country and 1950s pop. This final single before their new album Season of the Peach (out September 19) turns the clock back to the late 1960s for a stomping Nuggets-like slice of garageband-meets-acid rock. Check it out and the three recent singles for an insight into their wilful diversity. Unpredictable fun. – Graham Reid
Beautiful Strangers
by Mavis Staples
The great, 86-year old gospel soul singer Staples has been recently releasing remarkable albums bathed in wisdom, generational hurts from racism and the uplifting faith which has sustained here. Here in advance of a new album Sad and Beautiful World (November 7) she gets beneath the skin of Kevin Morby’s 2016 lyrics which juggle optimism through faith (“put your eye to the sky ... there’s a kingdom above the weather”) and the realities of this indifferent world of terrorism and school shootings: “If you ever hear that sound, if the door gets kicked in, think of others, be their cover”. Six minutes to catch your breath and consider the fragility of life in the company of a warm and empathetic voice. – Graham Reid
Soseol
by Faten Kanaan
Well, if Laurie Anderson could get O Superman on the charts maybe there’s a place for this curious instrumental from New York experimentalist Kanaan which starts like the sound of a 1980s video arcade game then has weird synth-string bits. Not a contender for radio play actually, but advance notice of her new album Diary of a Candle (October 17) which we can be sure sees her still selective about her audience. – Graham Reid
Boulanger, D’un matin de printemps (arr. for piano trio)
by Boulanger Trio
It depends how you judge these things, but by some reckonings, September 1 marks the first day of spring. We at the Listener are eternal optimists, so we’ll take that. – Richard Betts
