Australia’s sweetheart Troye Sivan has finally unleashed his talents into the stratosphere with his debut record Blue Neighbourhood. Primarily known for his YouTube channel, Sivan is not just another vlogger who earns an income from doing the Chubby Bunny challenge – he has expressed his personal journey into adulthood in a collection of songs that prove the…
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Angsty pop-punk isn’t a new thing. It isn’t a bad thing. It will always have a place within the lives of adolescents trying to find something to connect with. And frankly, I’m not ashamed to admit that some of my favourite times listening to music now is when I revisit the music I listened to…
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Since releasing their debut EP three years ago, Sydney’s Lime Cordiale have been synonymous with the Australian summer. Think road trips, rivers and bars in small towns. Their work is nostalgic in a way that particularly appeals to millennials, probably because – as they access the band’s music using the internet – it makes them…
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It’s hard to be happy and interesting at the same time. Often, if you listen to an album that comes from a “happy place,” your most likely reaction is going to be either envy or boredom. The fact is, most great art comes from a place of pain – the prevailing wisdom is that dissatisfaction…
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Nineteen year-old Sunshine Coast resident Ayla has just dropped an epic debut EP called When The World Ends. I’ve been listening to Ayla for a little over a year now and I can safely say this represents the best that the talented singer-songwriter has to offer at this stage in her career. When The World Ends consists of 5 tracks….
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Controversial Sydney rapper Kerser has released his fifth album in as many years, Next Step. While it contains every vulgar word in the English language (at least twice) and he insults everything from popular Aussie TV shows to well-known football players, it also has moments of honest, real emotions. “Only Rap You Need” is the…
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‘Status is always ripe for satire; status is always good for comedy.’ These words by Stephen Colbert perfectly sum up the concept that is The 12th Man. As the writer of Austen Tayshus’ classic “Australiana”, Billy Birmingham has been the man behind many a laugh, parody, and satire that has resonated within the Australian comedy…
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I know what you’re thinking – that sounds like a really morbid name for an album. Honestly, I agree with you. Thankfully, the music contained within is anything but morbid. It is soothing and easy. Daniel Lee Kendall aka Daniel Forsyth has been off the radar for a few years. What a way to return….
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I won’t deny that I was extremely excited for this album. It’s been a whole four-years since the world has heard a full-length record from Adele Adkins, arguably one of the best voices of our generation. The long awaited record is called 25 and it is Adele’s third album following the monumental success of 21 and…
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The resurgence of psychedelic rock in recent years has resulted in a spectrum of works, ranging from the successful, to the catchy, to the downright forgettable. Thankfully, Nick Allbrook of Pond (and formerly, Tame Impala) has managed to fall onto the better side of that spectrum with his new EP, Walrus. The five tracks on…
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Melbourne’s Hunting Season don’t sound fully Australian, or at least Australian right now, even though they’re playing in that very fertile field of dreamy Aussie indie-rock. They sound… Pacific North-Western if anything. Their EP Lost Forever is perhaps not even quite of the 2010s. There’s a very clear pop-punk overtone to the EP, but a…
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Loon Lake have put out their last hurrah with Low Res, and while saddening for most it’s probably their best yet. There isn’t a stand alone hit like “Cherry Lips” but as a whole it’s a strong album with plenty of those feel good vibes. It carries on that quirky lyricism, cheeky nostalgic and heart…
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In any artistic career that lasts decades, there will inevitably be a period where the artist loses touch with their fans, their music and themselves. For Neil Young, this period was the entire 1980s. In a career of weird moves (most notably 2010’s Fork in the Road, a concept album devoted entirely to the benefits…
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LOLAWOLF released their latest summery EP Every Fucking Day earlier this year – in our winter, to be exact. The brief album lays somewhere in minimalist hip hop and electronica. The trippy trio, fronted by Zoë Kravitz, have toured with the likes of Lilly Allen and Miley. It’ll be interesting to see if they launch into…
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You’ve heard it before but Andrew Hozier-Byrne, better known as Hozier, is more than just the compulsory indie rock artist that somehow made to Top 40 radio. His debut single ‘Take Me To Church‘ took the world by storm last year, but the Irish singer-songwriter has clearly established himself more than just a one-hit wonder with his 2014…
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A lot has changed for Canadian Claire Boucher, or Grimes, in three years. As she describes it, Art Angels is built on colour in comparison to the “black and white” sound palette of previous album Visions. It’s easy to see what she means; her sound has catapulted from dreamy-synth-pop into a hard-hitting amalgamation of hip-hop,…
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I confess, somewhat shamefully, that Mutemath have only ever existed for me on the peripheral of my musical consciousness. I’ve known about them, primarily, through a friend who has raved about them for years, but I’ve never managed to sit down and actively listen to anything they’ve released. Listening to their new album, Vitals, I…
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Brisbane’s WAAX have been building up a strong live reputation ever since their first two songs – “I for an Eye” and “Wisdom Teeth” – were released. The band hit the studio earlier this year, and back in October, the band released a surprise EP, titled Holy Sick, containing these two songs and two new tracks….
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Earlier today, US rock group Foo Fighters released a free, out-of-the-blue EP entitled Saint Cecilia. The release is their first since their well received concept LP Sonic Highways, which co-incided with the band’s 20th anniversary and led into what became “The Broken Leg Tour”, following Dave Grohl’s infamous on-stage accident. For those who missed the memo, in…
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Wow, just wow. Man, Australian music is so on point at the moment, it’s hard to think there was or ever will be a time in which Australian music wasn’t a world leader. It is ridiculously stellar at the moment. It seems with every week there’s a new artist ready to take control of the…
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The Cutting Edge, the latest release in Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series, is well named – it covers material recorded in 1965-6, when Dylan was at the forefront of rock and roll, and it also describes his songwriting at the time, which was so sharp and on point as to be cutting. The Bootleg Series was…
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Coming into summer in Australia means barbecues, beers, sunny afternoons and of course your favourite iPod mix. Playing throughout your mates backyard, river campsite or wherever you’ve decided to set up should be Palms’ new album Crazy Rack. This feel good summer vibe album was only dropped a bit over a week ago by Sydney’s…
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Blake Mills is enigmatic. Crossing genre boundaries with grace and confidence, his sound is extraordinarily difficult to pigeon hole. Yet, it seems that’s the way he likes it. In the course of twelve songs, the full gamut of guitar based music is covered. From country to blues to folk to rock and back again twice….
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You could be forgiven for dismissing King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard as a novelty. Their name alone sounds like it was created using some kind of random name generator, they have enough band members to field a football team and they seem to release something new every time the seasons change, but as always…
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Music has all different kind of purposes. To entertain, to dance and to sing; but the real purpose, for any music lover, is to feel a connection with it. American emo/punk rock band, Pentimento, recently released their sophomore record, I, No Longer and it’s absolutely stunning. Through heart-wrenching lyrics and grounded punk/emo music, the four-piece…
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Recorded at their own studio in Wellington, New Zealand, and self-released on The Drop, the label they own and operate, BAYS is the fourth studio album by internationally acclaimed, yet intrinsically Kiwi, Fat Freddy’s Drop. BAYS is the 7-piece’s follow up album to 2013’s Blackbird. Having previously lived in Wellington for ten years, Fat Freddy’s…
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Nowadays there seems to be a lot of acts falling into what I call ‘dada punk’. In essence dada punk is just that, Dadaist teachings and themes put into punk music. It’s no wonder why this marriage has come about, after all Dadaism was created when the artists felt that there was nowhere to go…
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Home is masterful in its ability to seep into your very core. Seven ethereal tracks have the potency to achieve an eternal and total state of calm. Repeated references to nature establish a lyrical motif that effectively communicates the complexity and volatility of the human heart. Increased layers of instrumental create a sophisticated sound that…
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Man, the Irish have something good going on. They’ve always seemed to be the little red engine that could; the little guy that produces quality goods for the rest. From Guinness, to Jameson Whiskey, to U2 and Ronan Keating, the country has always been on the money with what they do. And going by The…
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Canadian alt-folk band Half Moon Run released their sophomore album last week. After critical acclaim on their first LP Dark Eyes it seems Sun Leads Me On has searched for a lighter, brighter direction. Dabbling in synths, finger plucking and everything in between the 13-track album creates a diverse and wonderfully lyrical experience for fans…
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