After the absolute shitstorm of 2020, you’d have thought 2021 would hopefully deliver some sort of reprieve. After losing pretty much every avenue of income last year, English band Shame pinned all their hopes on 2021 being the year they could thrive, via touring their new album Drunk Tank Pink. Slaving away through last year…
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COVID-19 and lockdown delayed the release of Illy’s sixth studio album The Space Between by eight months. Although for an album three years in the making, a bit of patience wasn’t too much to ask for both artist and his fanbase. He’s dropped plenty of singles in the meantime. Melbourne-based Illy, Alasdair Murray, hadn’t put…
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Anglo-American rock band The Kills have forged a career spanning twenty years, releasing five studio albums and four extended plays. Now they’ve re-mastered a 20-track collection of B-sides and rare tracks which were released between 2002 and 2009 and put it out titled, Little Bastards. In such a project there is always a risk of going…
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the AU review is proud to announce The 40 Best Albums of 2020, from Australia and around the world. Who will top our 12th annual list? Read on to find out, and enjoy streams of the records as you scroll through. 40. San Cisco – Between You & Me After more than a decade together, San…
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It was always going to be hard for The Avalanches to follow up their debut Since I Left You. At the time of its release, it was groundbreaking and re-wrote the way in which music could and would be created. It may have taken them sixteen years to follow it up, but 2016’s Wildflower went…
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YUNGBLUD has been pretty busy since realising his debut album in 2018. With a slew of features and collaborations in the two years since, he’s been pushing the limits on what sound he’s creating and who, as a result, may want to listen to his music. Following a tender single with Halsey in 2019, he’s…
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After a long absence, Wolf & Cub are back, but not as you know it, armed with a new drummer, a heavier sound and a ‘zero-f**ks-given’ attitude all on show with new album NIL. NIL is Wolf & Cub’s fourth studio album. But, their first since 2013’s Heavy Weight which failed to deliver the commercial success…
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Musicians like Clio Renner are what makes the musical landscape go round and round. For every act you know as a near household name, there’s those musicians working in the periphery, as touring or session musicians helping create those songs you’ll play on repeat and love year in, year out. And if you’re lucky enough,…
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Tim Minchin‘s story is one of many failures and victories. Seemingly as stop as it was start, Minchin is now one of the most recognisable Australian artists anywhere in the world. It may have been a slow burn for him, but ever so slowly and surely the West Australian has managed to cultivate a persona…
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US-born, Germany-raised, London-studied, Melbourne-based dream-pop producer/songwriter Anika Ostendorf is Hachiku and she’s just released her debut LP I’ll Probably Be Asleep. The album references the sunshine of Beach House, whilst contrasting with tension and themes of angst and nomadism. Ostendorf leads Hachiku; which includes three other band members Georgia Smith, Jessie L. Warren and Simon Reynolds….
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Few artists worldwide have had as large and impressionable a past two years as BENEE. On the back of a string of hit singles strewn across two simply fantastic EPs, BENEE has seemingly been able to write songs with monster pop hooks, all whilst delivering them with a sweet level of melancholy and sincerity. Here…
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Money-can’t-buy endorsements from Will Smith, Pharrell Williams and Casey Neistat, to name a few, have given 23-year-old Perth electronic producer Ukiyo a big head start, and helped him to amass over forty million streams before the release of his debut LP. Now this week his self-titled debut album Ukiyo finally drops to a healthy degree of…
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Western Australian dark pop songbird Felicity Groom is back with her third album Magnetic Resonance Centre; her first since 2014. And she’s bitten off plenty, largely producing it herself amidst having and raising two daughters. “It has been predominantly written and recorded in in my house in-between daytime naps that my children would have,” Groom explains in…
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Egoism, the classy two piece from Sydney’s Inner West, return in 2020 with their killer second EP; the floating and completely lovely On Our Minds. Having taken the time to deliver their follow up to 2017’s It’s Wearing Off, On Our Minds is a massive step forward for the duo who’ve seemingly found not only…
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Redcliffe-raised, Melbourne-based songsmith Stephen Grady has been around the indie-folk scene for about five years now, but in 2020 he’s letting it all out. There’s a great quote in his bio which sums it up best: “The best stuff may still be round the corner but I can’t get there if I keep holding back.” With…
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After seemingly coming out of nowhere in 2018 with her absolutely fantastic debut album Thick Skin, Tia Gostelow returns in 2020 with an evolved and 80s inspired sound, and the marvellous new album Chrysalis. Where her debut album was filled with understated and downbeat melody, Chrysalis is full, for the most part, of upbeat groovers that…
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Songwriter and musician Liam McGorry has been on the Melbourne music scene in various guises for the past decade. But, he’s now taken the solo plunge with the moniker Ex-Olympian and debut album Afterlife, creating a sunshine-filled indie soul record. McGorry will be known to many from his work with Saskwatch, Dorsal Fins and Eagle and…
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There’s a strange level of satisfaction reviewing a new album for such a universally loved band like Ball Park Music. It’s like listening to the news that your best friends are getting married, that you’re going to become a parent for the first time or that the coronavirus has been eradicated. It’s pure, unadulterated excitement,…
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There’s been a high level of anticipation about the album drop for the collaboration of drum and bass royalty Sub Focus And Wilkinson and they haven’t failed to deliver with Portals; a journeying 11-track that has moves downtempo and orchestral, but sticks with their D&B signature style. After the pair released single “Take It Up”…
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For many people, their music tastes come about in one of two ways: through friends and lived experiences or through their parents and siblings. More recently you could even add the internet to that list. For me, the majority of my musical taste came directly from my dad and brother, while being part of the…
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Whichever way you try, Mildlife don’t fit neatly into any genre or pocket. This Melbourne alt-rock four-piece are carving their own original niche and have built upon their burgeoning reputation with this second offering, Automatic, a six-track album which runs for 40 minutes. Mildlife’s 2018 debut Phase led to labels of sci-fi space-jazz or psych-kraut-rock. There’s…
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In a time and place like 2020, I’m sure I’m not the only person who not only craves for things to go back to some semblance of normality and homogeneity, but also tries to simultaneously avoid the monotonous nature and constant groundhog days we’ve collectively experienced for the past six months. There’s a fine line…
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When I first put on the pre-stream of Midnight Manor, the second album from The Nude Party, I’d just got home from a long day back in the office after seemingly having never left my house for the last six months. Just as I wondered what I was going to cook for dinner having forgotten…
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On his debut solo album, Darwin-based producer Kuya James sets out to exhibit the talents of the broad Australian music community. ISA showcases the diversity that this country has to offer and, in the process, re-establishes the Australian identity. Kuya James, known off-stage as James Mangohig, was born to a Filipino father and a Dutch…
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With the release of their debut album, Melbourne five-piece Stevie and the Sleepers have achieved something rare in modern music – authenticity. Stevie Joy and Jason Fados have announced themselves as songwriters who can truly tell a story. Sonically, most of the time it’s a straight down the line Blues record. It flirts with Blues…
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The first thing that strikes you about Greatest Hits’ new EP is that these songs are mature. They’re self-aware. You get the distinct impression that no-one has tried too hard to write them. This is a personal opinion, but I enjoy an Indie Rock outfit that isn’t afraid to pay respect to the prog rock…
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Ever seen a band post about current affairs on their socials, and then read comments where morons say something to the effect of “stick to music”? There’s a very good chance you have. IDLES are the type of band that this would occur to regularly. They’ve built a platform on their anti-establishment themes, lyrics, persona and…
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Sunship Balloon – the side project from Daniel Haggis and Tord Øverland Knudsen of indie royalty The Wombats – have released their first album Everywhen. While their work with The Wombats is largely rooted in indie rock, Sunship Balloon sees the duo explore new sonic ground, with elements of psychedelia, electronica and alt-pop thrown into…
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Brash, energetic and full of their own confidence, A. Swayze & the Ghosts are ready to take the guitar rock world by storm – one three minute song at a time. Straight out of the Apple Isle, the four piece debut here with the blistering Paid Salvation and aim to mark their place on the music landscape….
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Everything Everything has always been a band that treads the fine line between grandiose displays of eccentric rock ready for heaving festival crowds, and smart, reclusive, ballad inspired classics fit for a small sweaty room filled with wine and scotch drinks. Being able to seamlessly meander across this spectrum of sound has enabled the Manchester…
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