New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
Future Islands’ seventh album is a combination of pandemic era music and post first tour music, and to some extent reflects the change in mindset over those years. The end of relationships, friendships and unhelpful aspects of the self all form the backdrop of this album from the Baltimore alternative stalwarts.
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian describes it as “a brutal, beautiful breakup album” in a review that outstandingly unpacks the album. We look forward to meandering through it each morning this week.
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
Sleater-Kinney date back to 1994 when Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Olympia, Washington joined forces to create scrappy activist-punk manifestos. On their eleventh album Little Rope explore vulnerability. Leading into the creation of the album Brownstein’s parents died in a car accident in Italy, a devastating loss that working on this album partly provided an outlet. The metaphor of “Little Rope” is ambiguous – it could be rope to hang, or rope to rescue. Pitchfork said that “grief clarifies the air” on the album in a 7.7 review. We’ll enjoy some great rock from the album this week – this interview with AP provides more background from the duo.
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
From the cover you could be accused of thinking this was an American band, however once the first strident chords and vocals of “Sometimes, I Swear” burst through there can be no illusions. The Vaccines burst onto the scene in the 2010s, quickly gaining a reputation on the London music scene. Their sixth album is another great collection of rocking hooky numbers, just the kind of Indie we lap up. The Guardiandescribed it as “high-octane” sonic euphoria” – we couldn’t agree more!
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
Conceived on a cross-US road trip Grace Potter has crafted “bold, colorful roots rock record filled with funky rhythms and big hooks” (AllMusic). The singer, organist and guitarist (ex The Nocturnals) has worked with The Flaming Lips, Gov’t Mule and Kenny Chesney. This is her fifth solo album, a really enjoyable album, folky, rocky and evocative of a trip down Route 66. Continuing our journey through some great albums from 2023 that we missed, we’ll be enjoying this album each morning this week.
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
Semisonic returned to the scene in 2020 with EP You’re Not Alone which we enjoyed. In November their renaissance continued with the release of the excellent Little Bit of Sun, a warm and melodic album with touches of Indie and Americana. We look forward to checking it out this week.
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
Mitski had burnt out on the demands of the music business and the demands of ‘representation’, in her case pigeonholed due her Asian American heritage. The break led to this album, her “most American album … This land, which already feels inhospitable to so many of its inhabitants, is about to feel hopelessly torn and tossed again – at times, devoid of love. This album offers the anodyne”.
With an interesting range of influences this is a rich album – less synth pop than its predecessor Laurel Hell and more settled, although still with a rich soundscape. Alexis Petridis in The Guardiandescribed it perfectly as “Playing country-inflected orchestral pop with sardonic wit and deep feeling, Mitski underlines why she’s one of the very best singer-songwriters working today”.
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
Peter Gabriel last released an album of new material over 20 years ago, back in the days when there were CD shops. For this long gestating effort he has embraced an innovative release strategy, with a series of singles at each full moon over the past year along with an accompanying video. We’ve really loved his monthly treats and his insights.
Finally the finished product has arrived. Another innovation has been the multiple mixes of each song – bright side mixes (mixed by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent) and dark side mixes (from Tchad Blake) along with Inside Mixes which are immersive mixes in Dolby Atmos by Hans-Martin Buff. Its been a pleasure hearing the different characters of each of these numbers.
The album seems to have been well received thus far, The Guardiandescribing it as a “late career masterpiece”, The Telegraphas a “gentle sweeping epic”. We look forward to a wonderful week enjoying tracks from this album each morning.
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
This band from Sydney came across our radar via the iTunes store this week. Its actually their second original album (they put out an acoustic version of their first album Echo of Youth in 2020 as well) and is a really polished set of performances with well written, melodic pop (that would probably be labelled as Indie or Alternative). These Beatlesque songs are memorable and indicative of a talented band. Mixdown mag describes it as “a musical journey replete with opulent synths and rousing, crowd-pleasing choruses reminiscent of the golden era of bands like The Verve and The Strokes”.
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
Veteran Indie artists Cold War Kids have produced their 10th album. It doesn’t seem to have generated much buzz amongst the reviewers but its a solid set of alternative rock tracks from the Californian band, including a few toe tappers like “Run Away With Me”. Enjoy!
New Zealand Net Radio plays a song from our irregularly updated #albumoftheweek every hour from 9am to 12pm. Listen in @tunein at http://tun.in/sfAtE or on the web player.
We don’t usually feature compilation albums, especially one which has been re-released three times in my lifetime (CD in 2003, remaster in 2010 then Giles Martin’s new remix last Friday) however this one is special. I’m sure there must be many Beatles fans who explored the band’s music through this and its companion 1967-1970 album. It might have been allegedly compiled by the band’s arch-villainous manager Allen Klein but it is a superlative collection of the music in their early years. One great complement to the band was always in reviews of this collection which pointed out that despite filling two double albums with ‘greatest hits’ there were still some absolute crackers left off. That has now been rectified in this new release which now justifies two CDs in running time and has added some notable omissions such as “I Saw Her Standing There”, “Twist and Shout”, “Got to Get You Into My Life” and “Here, There and Everywhere”. Some of the others strike me as ‘political’ additions to increase the presence of George Harrison or correct a perceived lack of tracks from the Revolver album – as creative and revolutionary as it was I don’t feel “Tomorrow Never Knows” sits nicely on a greatest hits collection. But those are quibbles.
In any case the interesting thing isn’t the additional tracks, its the remixes. These aren’t just yawnworthy tweaks for uber fans (bringing the bass slightly forward in a song for example) but dramatic reworkings of songs whose stereo mixes suffered from early ideas of what a stereo mix should be. These were more designed to show off the novelty of the technology and featured quirks such as all the vocals being located far off to the right and the drums on the left. Additionally four early songs couldn’t be properly mixed in stereo due to their original multitrack tapes being lost. Giles Martin has now reworked these songs with lovely spacious mixes with much more ‘realistic’ soundstages, locating the vocals and drums near the centre and spreading other sounds around. It is quite a revelation and for me will be the definitive version going forward.
Enjoy these absolute classic songs with us this week and hear this incredible band develop in their early years.
