Category: Album of the Week

Album of the Week: The Fray – A Light That Waits

This new album popped up on our “New Music” feed on Apple Music, probably after listening to the advance singles (and playing them on New Zealand Net Radio) but apart from that has been a bit of a ghost. We did come across a review on Sputnik Music which gives a clue why:

A Light That Waits is an outing only for the most diehard of The Fray followers. It’s an even plainer version of what they once were, which is actually an impressively low bar to have to crawl under, and whatever emotional element once existed in their music has been vanquished. 

As usual it seems our love of melodic well performed and produced music makes us unfashionable (that common ‘insult’ of radio-friendly we take as a complement!) – oh well. Lets enjoy an album of melodic radio friendly pop for the week, their first album since 2014.

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.

Album of the Week: Kingfishr – Halcyon

This album came out in August 2025 but popped into our awareness on the Youtube Music “Heavy Stereo” playlist this week. Superb beautiful Indie Folk with gorgeous harmonies and melodies. The Irish brogue is pretty hard to resist too! Some background from Bandcamp (you’ll have to buy their new album elsewhere):

The kingfisher is native to Ireland’s waterways, remaining sedentary unless food is scarce. Like the kingfisher, each member of the group has moved upstream in search of what they couldn’t find at home.
Kingfishr is an examination of the modern Irish experience, dealing with the love, loss and the struggle to find our place in society.

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.

Album of the Week: Mitski – Nothing’s About To Happen To Me

Indie favourite Mitski is back. As usual there is something different. In this case not so much stylistic (unlike her last Country flavoured album) as thematic. This is a concept album about an isolated woman, perhaps seen as mad and influenced by the Shirley Jackson novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Have a listen to the NPR discussion of Mitski and the album:

https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5726289/nx-s1-9667421

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.

Album of the Week: Hemi Hemingway – Wings of Desire

We fell in love with Hemi’s first EP The Lonely Hunter a few years back and he returns with another quality effort. He’s contributed to a track by track description which gives the inside story on this great collection of songs. Kiwi Hemi spent time in London however this album finds him back in New Zealand, reflecting on the end of a relationship, some bad memories and renaissance.

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.

Album of the Week: Six60 – Right Here Right Now

Kiwi favourites Six60 are back with another album of great melodic reggae-pop, their fifth. Recorded live in single takes over a period of three days the album shows the band’s technical mastery of this music. Lead singer Matiu Walters told music.nz “We are at the top of our game, and I feel like I was born to sing these songs!”.

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.

Album of the Week: Michael Marcagi – Under The Streetlights

Ohio-born Michael Marcagi broke through in 2024 with the viral hit “Scared To Start” off EP American Romance. His first album has just been released – a nice collection of contemporary singer-songwriter material (he describes his music as granola folk!).

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.

Album of the Week: Yumi Zouma – No Love Lost to Kindness

The general narrative with this album is goodbye dream-pop, hello grit. This isn’t quite true, there are still good examples of the sweet melodic sounds we’ve come to love (e.g. “Every False Embrace”) but there certainly are some more raunchy sounds on this album. We think they’ve achieved a good blend of ‘mixing it up a bit’ and retaining their core identity and who they are. The Guardian were a bit lukewarm about this – we disagree. Variety is always nice but they didn’t really have anything on previous albums that they needed to ‘fix’.

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.

Album of the Week: The Paper Kites – If You Go There, I Hope You Find It

This week we have a new album from Lucinda Williams (World’s Gone Wrong) burning with righteous anger. This album is a complete contrast to that – instead of reacting to the perceived chaos of the world of news and social media feeds it turns to the healing power of nature. The Paper Kites’ seventh album (the band is from Melbourne, Australia) this is a cosy, rich and warm effort.

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.

Album of the Week: Dove Ellis – Blizzard

Let’s start the new year with some quality singer/songwriter fare, this from Irish troubadour Dove Ellis. Pitchfork were on the money with this one (if a little churlish with their 7.6 rating!):

The ambitious young Irish balladeer crafts a debut album that’s heavy on the drama, letting moments of anthemic beauty peak through his cryptic delivery.

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.

Album of the Week: Snocaps – Snocaps

Any pretensions we had to being part of the ‘in the know’ set of Indie underground music get shattered when the Albums of the Year lists are released revealing scores of music that completely escaped us this year. Snocaps is yet another example. We love Waxahatchee’s music but didn’t realise Katie Crutchfield had teamed up with twin sister Allison to release Snocaps back in October. Rolling Stone got it right in the headline – “Snocaps is pure sibling-rock bliss”.

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.