Tag: New Music

Album of the Week: Bruce Springsteen – Tracks II “Faithless”

Our journey through Bruce Springsteen’s mammoth Tracks II box set continues. The Music Den‘s excellent review inspired me to move onto disk 3, the soundtrack for a planned ‘spiritual Western’ recorded around 2005. This is a beautiful collection of songs and instrumental pieces inspired by a character (or Bruce’s) struggle with faith and spirituality. According to Pitchfork:

“This was a really unusual collection of songs,” Springsteen said in press materials. “You could recognize details and maybe a character or two. But for the most part, I just wrote atmospheric music that I thought would fit.”

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: Bruce Springsteen – Tracks II “Streets of Philadelphia Sessions”

Bruce Springsteen, like many artists wasn’t just sitting around watching Netflix during the Covid era. He had the idea of going back through some unreleased material and polishing it up for release as a sequel to his Tracks of 1998, an understated effort by comparison. It is an indication of his greatness that he had at least seven unreleased albums sitting in the vault that had been put aside. Now here they are in all their glory along with great sleeve notes and a documentary telling the story from The Boss himself. We’re going to focus on the second record, the so-called Streets of Philadelphia sessions, an album recorded in 1994 and put aside “that pairs downtrodden tales of distance and doubt with drum loops and dreamy synths that occasionally border on trip-hop” according to Pitchfork‘s excellent review.

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: HAIM – I quit

HAIM are back after quite a wait (their last album was released in 2020) and they don’t disappoint. Qobuz described it as “warm, fresh and idiosyncratic”. This is a great well produced collection of rock/pop – we can’t wait to share tracks from it with you.

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: Kaleo – MIXED EMOTIONS

This is the third album from Icelandic rockers Kaleo. It explores some pretty serious material (e.g. mass shootings in “USA Today”) with impactful and polished blues rock. Website When The Horn Blows described how “KALEO have crafted a thunderous, tender, and often harrowing journey through desolation and defiance, death and deathlessness”.

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: Turnstile – NEVER ENOUGH

Aside from our OCD dislike of mis-capitalised song titles this great new album is a good counter to the often heard ‘truism’ that rock is dead. This is fresh sounding, melodic and varied rock ranging from great synth-ey and accessible numbers like the title track to more ‘full on’ songs like BIRDS that just push our boundaries of hardcore. An excellent collection from the Baltimore band. Pitchfork capture it perfectly in their review headline:

The biggest band in hardcore grows big enough to encompass electronic rhythms and flute meditation. Its new album winks to outsize expectations but answers to a higher calling”

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: Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful

After finally achieving her first Grammys for previous album Endless Summer Vacation Miley Cyrus had indisputably become a serious Pop artist. She was liberated in this followup album where she is free to be much more freeform, dare we say experimental. Its certainly an eclectic collection with some solid tracks.

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: Mitch James – This is not what I had in mind

This is Mitch James’ third (and apparently final) album as the 29 year old steps away from music. What a shame, one of the top Kiwi music talents producing top international pop. It sounds like the machinations of the music industry were too much for him – but this is a great album to enjoy.

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: Valerie June – Owls, Omens, and Oracles

Valerie’s 2022 album The Moon and Stars was an absolute delight so when this album flew past on our social media feed it caused great excitement. She pushes her beautiful sophisticated voice in new directions on this album, offering up a palette of Americana albeit with contemporary production cues (the producer is one of our favourites M Ward). What’s really delightful is that she avoids the cliché of despair at the world and offers “a radical statement to break scepticism, surveillance and doomscrolling” (from The Guardian).

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: Elton John & Brandi Carlile – Who Believes In Angels

The Independent review promises “outsize, old school-fun”, a promise also hinted at by the fabulous colourful album cover which looks like it could have come straight from the set of a 1980s BBC variety show. A really nice collection – we loved Brandi’s quote in her interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe – “I’ve been singing with Elton all my life – he just didn’t know it until about 10 or 20 years ago”. Opening with synths that could be straight from the opening of 70s albums “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” or “Blue Moves” this is a wonderful nostalgic blend of Americana and rock.

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: Mumford and Sons – RUSHMERE

We could have predicted The Guardian‘s reaction – “back to dreary basics”. After the departure of Winston Marshall a few years ago their first album in seven years brings them back with a familiar mix of electronic folk, sometimes stomping, always melodic. The now trio still have it on this album named after the pub in South London where they first met (we thought it must have been a US allusion somehow). A delightful album – its delightful to see this unfashionable effort sitting in the NZ top five as we write!

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.