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/
Some good music out this week (we’ll spin a few for New Music Friday). Greta Van Fleet’s Anthem Of The Peaceful Army got a bit of a savaging in some critical quarters, but even if not the most inventive new rock is still well executed and enjoyable. Also out is MØ with Forever Neverland and Khalid’s devastatingly good EP Suncity. Most interesting for us though was Sydney trio RÜFÜS DU SOL’s third album Solace. Fantasic electonica that further develops their sound. “No Place” is a track we’ve been enjoying for a bit, but there is plenty of substance here.
Some of the highlights of Loving The Alien include two double-disk concert albums, a remake of Never Let Me Down (1987 album) and a bunch of dance mixes. We’ll highlight some of our favourite tracks off the box set from this master musician this week.
We had to go with the beautiful album by kiwi Anika Moa though. A collection of songs which belie her TV persona, the album was recorded in New Orleans a few months ago with an amazing backing band. Enjoy!
Filled with great outtakes, demos and live versions, we’re looking forward to this sad retrospect of this great man’s talent this week.
We loved Christine and the Queens’ first album a few years ago, and the singles already out for this new effort are remarkable as well. The full album is worth a listen. Unusually we agree with Pitchfork‘s gushing review. It gets into detail about the courage and creativity of her gender crossing persona. We just think its a great collection of music, especially “Girlfriend”, “5 Dollars” and “Doesn’t Matter”. See what you think.
Stephen Erlewine describes this album as “an impassioned collection that spins his signature sounds into something stirring and, at times, incandescent”. This is a positive and much anticipated album four years on from Strut.
“Macca’s back in the groove” proclaimed The Guardian. Certainly this album contains a number of cracking tracks. Any older artist working with Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic etc) seems to attract immediate fire, presumably for trying to be contemporary. Paul however has always incorporated ‘of the moment’ influences as a rock and pop artist, while remaining true to his core sound as well. This collaboration produces a great catchy tune (“Fuh You”) however its joined by a number of other great tracks including “I Don’t Know”, “Come On To Me”, “Dominoes” and “Back In Brazil” amongst others. We look forward to checking out the album through the week.
British folk artist Passenger (aka Mike Rosenberg) takes us on a road trip through America. Perhaps more of the same, but a pleasant sounding album none the less.
We usually feature new albums in this slot, but this week we’ll take a look back at an all time classic from 1973. This album was Paul McCartney’s first widely respected album after the Beatles ended (the previous albums had mixed reviews). We’ll be playing the original tracks from the US release including the great song “Helen Wheels”. For more about this album I’d highly recommend checking out the great Complete Paul McCartney Archive Podcast episode 6 
Their first album in seven years received generally favourable reviews. A great sound, and in the absence of much in the way of exciting new releases a good chance to check out an album we didn’t get a chance to feature back in May.