Album of the Week: Shawn Mendes – Shawn Mendes

New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm Monday to Friday. Listen in @tunein at https://tunein.com/radio/New-Zealand-Net-Radio-s305138/


The very popular Canadian songsmith strikes again with his self titled third album. You can get too much of a good thing but after our synth pop week with ChVrches last week we’re ready to enjoy these well written singer songwriter numbers, including the big lead single “In My Blood”.

New Music Friday: 1st June 2018

Its Friday so its time for five brand new tracks to get their first spin on the hour every hour from 9am. We’ll keep playing these tracks on New Zealand Net Radio, home of streaming radio ad free 24/7 throughout New Zealand.

Passenger – Hell Or High Water

We’ve been enjoying the sweet folk of British singer/songwriter Mike Rosenberg for a few years now. Ahead of a new album this new song delivers more satisfaction.

 

Ray LaMontagne – Such A Simple Thing

From his new album, Ray (smash hit “Trouble” from a few years ago) has produced an album with a variety of sounds, less growl and more smooth. This first single has a hint of country. Worth investigating further.

Lowell – No Talk

The second album from Canadian Lowell, its filled with alt-pop pleasure. “No Talk” struck us as worthy of further investigation.

 

 

Liz Lawrence – Circling Numbers

Liz is an English singer-songwriter and belongs to the electro-pop duo Cash+David. She’s back with this cracking single, following on from a double A side late last year. Nice clean grooves . .

 

pronoun – run

This apparently started out as an album track, but ended up getting released as a single by this Brooklyn singer. A superb track with a nice stilted vocal on the first verse, a very satisfying track that’ll be going into high rotation. Oh – and great to hear some nice ringing guitar!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spotlight Artist: Jeff Beck

Every weekday between 1 and 5pm we play tracks from our #spotlightartist. They’re an artist with a body of work which has stood the test of time. We’ll play the hits – but also some deep cuts. Listen ad-free through New Zealand via @tunein at https://goo.gl/VL6m3N

Mr Geoffrey Arnold Beck was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He played with a few bands before being recruited by The Yardbirds, replacing Eric Clapton, on the recommendation of Jimmy Page who joined the band the following year. This was an incredible stamping ground and Beck’s almost two year stint produced some incredible music. Listening to their 1965 album Having A Rave Up is incredible with the blend of solid blues numbers, and the incredible “Heart Full of Soul” which contains Indian influences (the Indian sitar player had trouble producing the sound needed so Beck produced a sitar-like effect on his guitar).

Fired from the gruop late in 1966 he had several solo hits before forming the Jeff Beck Group, then in the early 1970s collaborating with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, releasing a studio and live album with them. Much of his later work is instrumental. We’ll feature songs ranging from the Yardbirds era right through to “Plan B” from his 2003 album Jeff.

 

Album of the Week: ChVrches – Love Is Dead

New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm Monday to Friday. Listen in @tunein at https://tunein.com/radio/New-Zealand-Net-Radio-s305138/

We’ve been looking forward to this album from this Glaswegian band for months since their promising early singles “Miracle” and “My Enemy” were released. Lauren Mayberry’s vocals are incredible, and the band’s synth pop sound continues to evolve. The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart gave some early inspiration. An interesting influence mentioned in an interview with Matt Waterman of Beats 1 was New Order’s track “Age of Consent”, with its loose, rough feel. They certainly have achieved a raw live feel with this great album. Can’t wait to play it to you!

The tracklist:

  1. Graffiti
  2. Get Out
  3. Deliverance
  4. My Enemy (feat. Matt Berninger)
  5. Forever
  6. Never Say Die
  7. Miracle
  8. Graves
  9. Heaven/Hell
  10. God’s Plan
  11. Really Gone
  12. ii
  13. Wonderland

 

Classic Album: The Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake

A wonderful album name, and cover, this is one of the quintessential psychedelic albums, released this day in 1968. The Small Faces had already had some big psychedelic hits the previous year (e.g. Itchycoo Park). This album is filled with pounding beats and crunching guitars, and you’ll spot it on most “Top 500 Albums” lists. The Guardian told its story on its 40th birthday here. We’ll play tracks from this album hourly after 12 as our Classic Gold tracks – enjoy.

Classic Album: The Moods of Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye’s seventh album was released on this day in 1966 (23rd of May). His career was obviously well underway, and the plan was to establish the Motown singer as a strong album artist. He was interested in recording an album of standards but the sessions were unsuccessful. Six songs from this album were released as singles and impressively four reached the Top 40 on the Pop Singles chart. We’ll be playing some tracks from this album as our Classic Gold tracks each hour from 12pm.

Spotlight Artist: Dave Dobbyn

Every weekday between 1 and 5pm we play tracks from our #spotlightartist. They’re an artist with a body of work which has stood the test of time. We’ll play the hits – but also some deep cuts. Listen ad-free through New Zealand via @tunein at https://goo.gl/VL6m3N

Dave Dobbyn is an obvious artist to celebrate in New Zealand Music Month – because its obvious doesn’t mean its the wrong thing to do though. He has such an impressive body of work, and has been a big part of my life since “Slice of Heaven” was a triumphant singalong in the mid 1980s from the Footrot Flats film. Of course that wasn’t the beginning – later I got to sing along to classic party songs from his earlier career in Th’Dudes. Overnight Success was his first best of, released in 1999 and filled with cracking tracks. Wonderfully he has gone on to release further treasures since then. We look forward to listening to some gems this week, including a few lesser known tracks.

Album of the Week: James Bay – Electric Light

New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm Monday to Friday. Listen in @tunein at https://tunein.com/radio/New-Zealand-Net-Radio-s305138/

James Bay was the much hyped man in a hat back in 2014, the ex Brighton busker with the sensitive folk-pop acoustic leaning album The Chaos and the Calm. He could have done it again, but whilst ostensibly on a six month break he headed into a basement studio and emerged with what iTunes describes as “simmering funk-rock, taut alt-pop and folky electro-R&B”. At the risk of too much smooth male music (Charlie Puth last weekend released Voicenotes, next weekend Shawn Mendes releases a self titled album) we’re looking forward to checking out more tracks from this album. The tracklist:

  1. Intro
  2. Wasted On Each Other
  3. Pink Lemonade
  4. Wild Love
  5. Us
  6. In My Head
  7. Interlude
  8. Just For Tonight
  9. Wanderlust
  10. I Found You
  11. Sugar Drunk High
  12. Stand Up
  13. Fade Out
  14. Slide

New Music Friday: May 18th 2018

Its Friday so its time for five brand new tracks to get their first spin on the hour every hour from 9am. We’ll keep playing these tracks on New Zealand Net Radio, home of streaming radio ad free 24/7 throughout New Zealand.

So much great new music this week – new albums from Charlie Puth, Arctic Monkeys, Beach House, Marian Hill, Kings, Sons of Zion and great singles from LSD, Selena Gomez, Rita Ora & friends, Bastille and John Mayer. Our pick of five new tracks to highlight:

Smith & Thell – DUMB

Smith & Thell are a Swedish folk / pop due who have been releasing singles since 2012. Their breakthrough was in 2015 with song “Statue”. This new song is another great pop number.

 

 

Beach House – Pay No Mind

The new album from this US band has been widely acclaimed and rightly so. It has a succession of great dreamy songs with lots of synth and good melodies. We’re playing some other tracks but here is the premier of track 2 “Pay No Mind”, a great album track which could qualify for release as a single.

Lake Street Dive – I Can Change

Like Beach House this US band formed in 2004. Their new album has hit the Billboard 200 album top 10 on release which is awesome. Lead single “Good Kisser” has had the attention but we really like this album track about letting go of hate and hangups.

Rueben Stone – Something For You

From his new EP Something For You this Melbourne artist blends genres – touches of reggae and pop combine in this breezy number that I’m sure will feature in many summer beach playlists.

 

R3hab & Conor Maynard – Hold On Tight

Dutch DJ R3hab and English singer Conor Maynard combine on this nice single. Conor started off on Youtube and has released a few singles, R3hab has a Sirius XM show called I NEED R3HAB. With 6 million monthly streams on spotify Conor is doing great and this nice pop number will help the cause!

Spotlight Artist: Neil Finn

Every weekday between 1 and 5pm we play tracks from our #spotlightartist. They’re an artist with a body of work which has stood the test of time. We’ll play the hits – but also some deep cuts. Listen ad-free through New Zealand via @tunein at https://goo.gl/VL6m3N

Neil Finn’s status as a legendary Kiwi musician is really inarguable. His achievements span four decades and a body of masterful pop. Born in 1958 he joined Split Enz in the mid 1970s. By 1980 he was lead singer and made an impressive debut on the international scene writing and singing their first big worldwide hit “I Got You”. After an impressive body of work with Split Enz, he went on to found what became Crowded House. They went on to enjoy stellar success, including two massive hits “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and “Weather With You”. Since they split up in 1997 he has released four solo albums (Try Whistling This – 1998, One Nil – 2001, Dizzy Heights – 2014 and Out Of Silence last year) as well as many collaborations including ones with his brother Tim and his wife (forming Pyjama Club). We’ll enjoy lots of great hits as well as some lesser known tracks from Neil’s various career points over the week. We’ll kick it off after 1pm Monday with one of my favourites, “It’s Only Natural” off Crowded House’s penultimate and perhaps greatest album Woodface (1991).