Spotlight Artist – Jade Bird

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/VL6m3NS

Jade Bird performs at the Troubladour in Los Angeles

We normally feature a ‘well worn’ artist as our Spotlight Artist, but this week we’ll showcase a very talented British artist, Jade Bird. She is something a bit different – a young performer from the UK specialising in Americana! With a new album coming in April, we’ll check out her E.P. Something American from last year and assorted singles. You’ll find a great profile of her recently published in the Guardian.

Album of the Week: Queen – A Night At The Opera

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/

Continuing with our theme of classic albums over the holiday period, here’s an album that is receiving a bit more attention at the moment with the release of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. Are we seeing a new generation of Queen fans? Queen’ fourth album, A Night At The Opera was released in 1975 whereupon it spent four weeks at the top of the UK album charts, selling over 6 million copies (it hit number one in New Zealand as well).

Spotlight Artist: The Arctic Monkeys

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/VL6m3NS

There weren’t many “Albums of the Year” lists for 2018 that didn’t have critics swooning over Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino – and rightly so.  The album represented a change of direction. Pitchfork described it as swapping “witty sleaze for absurdist suave “. The Arctic Monkeys formed in 2002 in Sheffield, UK releasing their first album in 2006. This was Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not , an iconic album of its time and the fastest selling debut album in UK history. A further five studio albums have followed, establishing the band as a stalwart of British rock in the 2000s. We look forward to checking out some familiar and lesser known tracks from through the years.

Album of the Week: Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A.

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/

Over the holiday period in the absence of major releases we’ll cast our eyes back over some classic releases. Bruce Springsteen’s album from 1984 became so ubiquitous that it possibly suffered from overexposure at the time. There is no doubt however that this is a superb collection of songs. With 19 million sales this landmark album is superbly realised. AllMusic as usual provide a good review.

Tracks of the Year

Whew, we made it through. As mentioned earlier it was devilishly hard choosing these Top 40 tracks of the year. We tried to pick ones that have had longevity and that we think will stick around for years to come. We limited ourselves generally to one track per artist – many of these had more than one deserving song. Here is the playlist – from 40 down to Maroon 5 at No. 1.

Tracks Of The Year

Normally on Friday morning New Zealand Net Radio plays fresh tracks we’ve noted – New Music Friday. This week however something different. Our top 40 tracks of 2018. After hours of gruelling work, we had it down to 130! Getting it to 40 required extraordinary grit. No doubt about it, unless you’ve been under a rock, 2018 has been a great year for music. Listen in @tunein at https://tunein.com/radio/New-Zealand-Net-Radio-s305138/ as we count down our Top 40 tracks of 2018.

Countdown

Janelle Monáe

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/VL6m3NS

Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Janelle Monáe can probably vie credibly for artist of 2018. She certainly isn’t a new artist. Her first (unofficial) album The Audition was released in 2003, and she has already released scores of great singles as well as albums like The ArchAndroid (2010) and The Electric Lady (2013). However this year’s Dirty Computer really captured the zeitgeist. Although the openness of her sexuality undoubtedly helped in raw commercial terms with the publicity regime the album fully deserved its commercial and critical success. It wasn’t the one we listened to the most necessarily, but it certainly stood out for its freshness, sexiness and incredible funk and new wave sounds. This week in our Spotlight Artist spot we’ll track back over some great songs from Monáe’s career, stretching from The ArchAndroid through to today.

Album of the Year: Kimbra – Primal Heart

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/

So many choices – we’ve had some real delights as albums of the week this year, and plenty of nice ones that have just missed out because of a plethora of albums at the same time. The 1975’s A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships, Ariana Grande’s Sweetener, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s Hope Downs, Beach House 7, A Star Is Born, The Greatest Showman: Reimagined and Parquet Courts Wide Awake spring to mind. In the world of the critics,
Janelle Monáe, Mitski, Robyn, Kasey Musgraves and Christine and the Queens seem to have triumphed frequently (https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2018/). We could have chosen any of those, but we decided to go with a Kiwi effort, an album we kept returning to through the year – Kimbra’s Primal Heart.

Look forward to featuring this fantastic album once again this week. On Friday, in place of New Music Friday, we’ll count down our top 40 songs of 2018 through the morning.

Spotlight Artist: The Beach Boys

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/VL6m3NS

Three brothers, their cousin and a friend put together a rock band in 1961. It went on to be legendary. From surf songs, they progressed to the incredible creativity of Pet Sounds before Brian Wilson’s attempt to create an even bigger album masterpiece (Smile) collapsed in acrimony and Wilson’s own unstable mental state. They still produced some good tracks after this time though, like “Do It Again” and “Bluebirds Over the Mountain”. With summer well and truly here, what better than the Beach Boys!