All About The Music
This great new single from the trio of siblings (older brother Jamie left in 2016). Echosmith’s (@echosmith) last hit single was back in 2015 (remember Cool Kids) but this one has a good chance of repeating the feat. See what you think! Love the cover photo by the way.
A very antipodean pile of new music this week …
What So Not & Toto – We Keep On Running
What So Not is a project from Australian producer Chris Emerson. He’s been performing for a few years but has just released his first album Not All the Beautiful Things. This is one of the tracks, featuring legendary 80s band Toto (Africa, Hold the Line etc). There are some other interesting collaborations on the album – look out for further tracks in coming weeks on New Zealand Net Radio.
Robinson – Nothing To Regret
We are very excited about this hot pop number from Robinson. This track follows up a couple from late last year. Aged 21 Robinson has had an incredible opportunity to work with some real industry pros. She’s obviously living a globetrotting lifestyle. The girl from Nelson said about this song:
Written one night in New York, ‘Nothing to Regret’ is an ode to the dance party in your living room and living for the weekend. So excited to have it out in the world now, I hope you like it.
Thanks for asking- we do!
Alison Wonderland – No
We’ve already been enjoying CHURCH, now comes another single off Alison’s forthcoming album Awake (her second). She says:
NO IS ABOUT FAKE PEOPLE WHO ENABLE, TELLING U YES ALL THE TIME BUT I WILL ALWAYS BE REAL W U
She just tweeted:
I just found out that I am the highest billed female in history to DJ at @coachella
A well deserved accolade!
Kylie Minogue – Stop Me From Falling
Our last antipodean treat is from old hand Kylie Minogue. A single from her forthcoming 14th studio album. We were pleasantly surprised by Dancing, the first single and this one is also a cracker. Will be interesting to see what the critics say but in the end who cares – this one got the feet tapping.
Jukebox The Ghost – Fred Astaire
And now for our token US artist – and for the first time a week to week repeat. Last week we featured Everybody’s Lonely, this week an interesting number with some retro flourishes to take us back to the time of Fred Astaire, the 1940s theme keeps coming through. Fred died in 1987, an absolutely legendary entertainer for most of the 20th century as a singer and dancer. A very suitable image in this song:
When I dance like I don’t care, you call me Fred Astaire
Another fine piece of pop from Cheat Codes (@cheatcodesmusic), backing beautiful vocals from Kiiara. Born in 1995 (real name Kiara Saulters, named after the Lion King character???) she released her debut major label single Gold in 2015. She has collaborated with Linkin Park on Heavy (on our playlist). Enjoy!
A great new single from US duo Sofi Tukker (@sofitukker), Sophie explained on Twitter:
Baby I’m A Queen” is about embracing tumultuousness and vulnerability. Just because you are vulnerable doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be belittled or infantilized. (Why is “baby” the default nickname?) We are strong and empowered because we cry, because we desire, and because of what is chaotic about us. This song is about standing up as powerful and strong because of that courage to share ourselves. It’s about being both a baby and a queen at the same time.
A new album TREEHOUSE (yes their capitals) is coming next month.
This is a great pop number which was released in February. Nilüfer (@niluferyanya) is a 22 year old London singer. The song is sparse and beautiful, and we think you’ll enjoy this dreamy number.
Years & Years (@yearsandyears) released their debut album in 2015, debuting on the UK Album Chart at No.1. They have been on hiatus since 2016 but recently lead singer Olly Alexander announced they had been working on new music with the ubiquitous Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter. This is the first release and a very nice number too!
Number 6 trending video on YouTube right now is Delicate, a number from Taylor Swift’s (@taylorswift13) recent album reputation. Its a rather ironic commentary on fame, recognition and attention (she courts all these things but sometimes they don’t play out how she would like, I suspect). It all ties back to the themes running through the album, although we’d thought this was more of a love song. Listen on New Zealand Net Radio.
A product of the Britain’s Got Talent gristmill, Calum Scott (@calumscott) began writing his own songs. The process of creating his first album was delayed as he realised he needed to write from a position of honesty, especially about his sexuality. Newly released Only Human is the result of that process. Although this song isn’t a big single, we think its a standout number. Calum commented about it on Twitter:
“written about the desperation of love. Those situations when the other person puts up their walls and won’t let you in. Sometimes you just need something to work with, some sort of signal to show it’s worth the fight.”
This song off Rae Morris’ new album Someone Out There is a stunning, simple song. Her multitracked harmonies rise over a simple piano backing track (the Guardian accurately found a hint of Bjork in her vocals). Very satisfying and a track we’re looking forward to including in our mix. More to come from this talented lady.
Music journalists love a genre label – Public Image Ltd is categorised as ‘post punk’ although it was a creation of one of the main exponents of punk – John Lydon/Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols. Formed in 1978, Rise was released some years later in 1986 on the album conveniently named Album.
A few years ago he talked about how he wrote the song about Nelson Mandela and apartheid. Go Johnny!