Category: Album of the Week

Album of the Week: 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/

This is Kiwi singer Kimbra’s third album (she’s from Hamilton), following on from 2014’s The Golden Echo. We’ve been playing several tracks over the past couple of months, and the album as a whole lives up to the expectations set by those tracks. This is a great collection of melodic pop but with an edge and inventiveness that take it beyond the ordinary. The critics have been complementary:

Primal Heart takes listeners on a smoother journey than The Golden Echo‘s wild ride, and if some of these tracks are a little more straightforward, they’re also great showcases for Kimbra‘s soul-baring. Her writing feels more personal than ever as she tackles getting older, wiser, and stronger on songs that range from “Lightyears”‘ soaring exuberance to the defiance of “Everybody Knows.” The album’s ballads are some of Kimbra‘s most compelling yet

The tracklist:

  1. The Good War
  2. Top of the World
  3. Everybody Knows
  4. Like They Do On the TV
  5. Recovery
  6. Human
  7. Lightyears
  8. Black Sky
  9. Past Love
  10. Right Direction
  11. Version of Me
  12. Real Life

Album of the Week: 30 Seconds To Mars – America

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/

Jared Leto started out as lead in My So Called Life (a forgettable 90s teen comedy) and founded 30 Seconds To Mars in 2002 to some fanfare. The band wasn’t a flash in the pan, and although his acting career has continued “Thirty Seconds” (the number turned to a word along the way) have now released six albums with this new effort. The album deals with US politics today without much subtlety. The reviews have been fairly cool – one compares this to the “tasteless gruel” of Imagine Dragons and Twenty One Pilots. Fortunately we (along with the people who have kept songs from Evolve in pretty much every top 20 since it was released, and those who saw this album selling more units than Cardi B’s unavoidable debut album) actually quite like this contemporary rock sound. Let’s work through the tracks this week. We’ll kick off with an instrumental called Monolith after 9 on Monday.

Featured Album: Elton John & Co – Revamped

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

Our #featuredalbum this week is Revamp: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. Released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their collaboration. And what a career they have had. It has already yielded a 25 year celebration (Two Rooms from 1993) but this incredible body of music is worth revisiting. Like the earlier effort it is really interesting hearing how contemporary pop artists have interpreted his songs. Watch the trailer for a bit more background from the contributors:

Less well publicised is another album Restoration which features interpretations by country artists. We’ll try and sneak on a few of those numbers this week as well. Listen every morning from 9am for an hourly track from Revamp.

And the track list:

  1. Bennie and the Jets (Elton John, P!nk and Logic)
  2. We All Fall In Love Sometimes (Coldplay)
  3. I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues (Alessia Cara)
  4. Candle In The Wind (Ed Sheeran)
  5. Tiny Dancer (Florence and the Machine)
  6. Someone Saved My Life Tonight (Mumford and Sons)
  7. Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word (Mary J. Blige)
  8. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (Q-Tip and Demi Lovato)
  9. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (The Killers)
  10. Daniel (Sam Smith)
  11. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (Miley Cyrus)
  12. Your Song (Lady Gaga)
  13. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Queens of the Stone Age)

Album of the Week: Kacey Musgraves – Golden Hour

New Zealand Net Radio features our Album of the Week from 9am to 12pm on weekdays. Each hour we play a track from a ‘worthy’ new album. Listen Now

We enjoyed High Horses on New Music Friday, now let’s meander through the whole album.

Macy’s career spans over a decade, with her first major label studio album being released in 2013 (Same Trailer Different Park) and she has been nominated and won plenty of awards including a Grammy nomination and has won the Academy of Country Music best album award for Same Trailer.

This new album clearly belongs in the Country genre but makes a clear effort to break through to pop as well, especially in the Bee Gees inspired High Horses. The lyrics are pretty cool too. Some of the material is a bit of a celebration of getting stoned which is a shame but aside from that is a great selection of songs. We’re going to enjoy poring through them this week.

The Tracklist

  1. Slow Burn
  2. Lonely Weekend
  3. Butterflies
  4. Oh, What A World
  5. Mother
  6. Love Is A Wild Thing
  7. Space Cowboy
  8. Happy & Sad
  9. Velvet Elvis
  10. Wonder Woman
  11. High Horse
  12. Golden Hour
  13. Rainbow

 

Album of the Week: George Ezra – Staying At Tamara’s

New Zealand Net Radio features our Album of the Week from 9am to 12pm on weekdays. Each hour we play a track from a ‘worthy’ new album. Listen Now

You’ve spent a year or so touring and promoting a massive album (number 3 in sales in the UK for 2014). If you’re George Ezra (@george_ezra)you understandably take some time out. Last year he headed to Barcelona to an Airbnb owned by the Tamara of this album’s title and spent a month working on these songs. Some critics have described them as “unflinchingly polite” and that this album will “doubtless be huge” whilst venomously making what sound like virtues to us into criticisms (The Guardian). We’ll enjoy these songs on their merits, working through the tracklist during our morning 9am – 12 pm programme. Hope you enjoy them! Oh and the tracklist:

  1. Pretty Shining People
  2. Don’t Matter Now
  3. Get Away
  4. Shotgun
  5. Paradise
  6. All My Love
  7. Sugarcoat
  8. Hold My Girl
  9. Saviour (feat. First Aid Kit)
  10. Only a Human
  11. The Beautiful Dream