Montaigne – Ready
For fans of: Sarah Blasko, Lorde, Sia
Ready continues Montaigne’s heady ascent into the realm of fully formed pop queens. This song hits all the right notes, with the avant-garde appeal and sturdy song craft of Sarah Blasko and Lorde, the unapologetically commercial sensibilities of Sia, and an absolute onslaught of impossibly high notes and Idol-worthy moments that the likes of Pink and Katy Perry repeatedly reach for. The difference is Montaigne reaches them. Simply put: forget community radio play. This song needs to start being spun on the hour, every hour, on the types of commercial radio stations that employ garishly painted Thunder-trucks to lap the city streets, giving away petrol vouchers and icy cold cans of Coke. This is a world-beating tune.
For more: Montaigne’s album Complex is out 30 August. She’ll be touring Australia in November.
Stephen Cummings – Shifting Heavy Circles
For fans of: the Sports, the Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan
Trying to sum up the quintessential sound of Stephen Cummings is a fruitless task. There’s the tight Elvis Costello strut of his late-70s new wave group the Sports; the cabaret wanderings and dancefloor flirtations of his work in the 80s, and a run of successful largely acoustic confessionals throughout the 90s. Now there is this, the latest single plucked from the Melbourne musician’s 20th solo album Prisoner Of Love. Shifting Heavy Circles is a swaggering rock’n’roll song, the type they made before metronomes were used, when the first take was the only take. The playing and the production are taut and economical, with a snaking backwards guitar solo the only concession to production trickery. Cummings’ wayward and untreated vocal is pushed to the forefront, to great effect. He sounds at turns energised and world-weary, skipping over the syllables like Bob Dylan before he found religion. Regardless of the lyrics’ literal meaning, the feeling comes across loud and clear: the mechanics of day-to-day life is a load we have to bear. Bemoaning daily drudgery is a time-honoured rock trope – and it will continue to be until both rock’n’roll and the 40-hour week die merciful deaths.
For more: Prisoner of Love is out now, as is a 50-song anthology, A Life Is A Life, spanning all 20 of his solo records.
Baker Boy – In Control
For fans of: Kendrick Lamar, Anderson Paak, A Tribe Called Quest
Baker Boy is in the middle of a purple patch that shows no signs of slowing – and In Control is another instant earworm. Over a vamping musical bed that sits somewhere between ABC by Jackson 5 and Livin It Up by Ja Rule, Baker Boy weaves a tale of resilience and bravery that acts as a bellwether without overly preaching or teaching. The cute crowd participation is courtesy of the kids at Thornbury primary school, furthering Baker Boy’s mission to create inclusive, non-compromising music aimed squarely at the masses while incorporating the local community, his native Yolŋu Matha, and an infectious confidence that has had the current Young Australian of the Year already break down a number of barriers that sadly still stand in the way of so many Australians. Sonically, he continues to lean on the spitfire delivery of Kendrick Lamar while adopting the carefree bravado of Kanye West. “I am in control,” Baker Boy declares in the chorus – and we have no reason to doubt it.
For more: Baker Boy will be performing at Yours & Owls festival in Wollongong in NSW in October, and at the free Palmy Street Party on 20 July for Youth Week in Palmerston, Northern Territory.
DZ Deathrays – In-To-It
For fans of: the Hives, Radio Birdman, Jet
At the turn of the century, society was deeply concerned about two things: the Y2K bug and the quick rise of nu-metal music. It turns out we didn’t have to worry about the former, and the solution to the latter was to look to the past and strip rock back to its basics. The Strokes mined the attitude of Lou Reed and the sound of CBGBs; the Hives looked to the sneering punk of 77; and the Vines and Jet aped the Beatles and Stones respectively. Similarly, DZ Deathrays are not made for these times, with a sound that straddles all the aforementioned influences, with lyrics that connect like a club to the skull. I was determined to file this one away with my Modern World punk samplers until the glorious middle eight kicks in, booting this track into overdrive. From the midpoint onwards, this tune is a runaway freight train, and as simple melodies dance over simpler chords, the phrase “if it ain’t broke” lodged in my mind. In. To. It.
For more: DZ Deathrays’ new album Positive Rising: Part 1 is out 30 August.
Boy & Bear – Hold Your Nerve
For fans of: Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, Gang Of Youths
At the peak of their career four years ago, Boy & Bear seemed to disappear – taking time off as lead singer Dave Hosking dealt with a debilitating gut bacterial problem that left him unable to create new songs. It was only thanks to a “poo roadie” – a stool donor named Harry who was brought to Nashville for faecal microbiota transplant treatment, that the band have detailed in their press material and interviews – that he could recover and start writing music again. Lucky for us, they haven’t changed a damn thing. For a band that arrived so fully formed, their musical progression has involved tightening and tinkering rather than a wholesale revamping of their sound that most bands arrive at with their fourth album, usually with diminishing returns. Luckily, good songcraft never goes out of style: this is a classy song, with shades of (wait for it) In A Big Country, with its confident, lilting chorus and perpetual march.
For more: Boy & Bear tour in August before new album Suck In Light comes out on 27 September.
Spod – Make Things Right
For fans of: Alex Cameron, Naked Eyes, Echo and the Bunnymen
The best new wave music wasn’t cheesy, funky or particular upbeat. It was icy and solemn, with atmospheric synths, militaristic drumming and emotive vocals that whispered tales of pain and longing, love and death. Despite the bleating synths and penchant for overproduction, this was music that took itself seriously, dialling down the histrionics of Morrissey, and cribbing Prince’s falsetto and stripping it of sex. Sydney mainstay Spod moves in this same sonic universe, despite being the type of musician who could equally share the stage with Tripod or New Order, shamelessly self-promoting his own legendary status through hilarious videos, album covers and career moves made with tongue firmly in cheek. There’s nothing to giggle at with this song though: a sublime slice of straight-down-the-line emotive new wave, with a lazy sing-song vocal melody buried in the mix, a bassline that dances across the fretboard and keyboards that belong on an old VHS copy of a work safety tutorial. OK, so maybe there’s a little to giggle at.
For more: Spod’s album Adult Fantasy is out 19 July, with east coast launch shows throughout July and August.
Sampa the Great – Final Form
For fans of: Eve, Kanye West, Lil Kim, Lauryn Hill
Sampa the Great could very well be the best Australian rapper going around at the moment. With a flow that mirrors Death Row Records casualty Lady Of Rage, or – for a more current reference – the dexterous bite of Nicki Minaj, Sampa has a natural, easy command of her art that is betrayed in the confidence dripping from this track. Built around an insistently cheery big-band sample, Final Form is a striking and rewarding listen – from the intriguing, jolting instrumental that opens the track and loops for 40 seconds as if to build anticipation for what follows, all the way through to the sudden skidding soul cut that skips in and fades out within the song’s final 10 seconds: a scratchy 45 hijacking a jukebox.
For more: Sampa the Great’s debut album is expected later this year.
Miami Horror – Restless
For fans of: Hall and Oates, Pharrell Williams, Terence Trent Darby
In 2019, the gap between “legitimate, club-filling disco banger” and “Michael McDonald-inspired yacht rock that your dad would smoke cigars to in ball-squashing short shorts” is a negligible one. Two years ago, Miami Horror released The Shapes EP, which was dripping with pleasant 70s synths, Afro-funk grooves, and basically any terminally uncool sound they managed to strangle from their instruments. Intended as a one-off anomaly before they got back to the lucrative business of party-starting, this EP instead pointed towards the future direction their material would head. Restless is a soothing mid-tempo R&B ballad, as sonically tepid as warm water but with the feel of a spritzer, with lashings of laconic falsetto, a bridge straight from Off the Wall, and a hook that veers surprisingly towards Maxi Priest’s Close To You – another reference I didn’t think I’d be pulling in 2019.
For more: Check out the band’s 2017 EP The Shapes for more of this breezy sound.
Ali Barter – Backseat
For fans of: Flop, Le Tigre, Juliana Hatfield
Ali Barter’s music sounds like the soundtrack to a 90s misspent in the suburbs while dreaming of skyscrapers: the lives led by pre-net teenagers who relied on monthly magazines, friends’ older siblings and late-night Rage for a glimpse into what those in the “real world” were getting up to. This is a mix of the Daria soundtrack, chart-friendly bubblegum pop, riot grrrl records, films starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, the music that Evan Dando’s many muses would create and tunes that you first heard from all-girl punk bands that play all-ages shows at the local PCYC.
For more: Ali Barter’s new album Hello, I’m Doing My Best is out 18 October, which she’ll follow with a national tour.
Pluto Jonze – I’ll Try Anything
For fans of: Tame Impala, White Fence, Liam Gallagher
I’ll Try Anything sounds like vintage Lennon. Specifically Sean Lennon, and his beautifully heartbroken masterpiece Friendly Fire, which details betrayal, longing and death over a sonic palette cribbed from both his old man and those who followed his old man’s lead, such as Badly Drawn Boy, Oasis and Elliott Smith. Pluto Jonze proudly belongs to this lineage, blending stately keyboard parts smothered by pillows, Abbey Road-era lead breaks, vocals beamed in from the top of a mountain, vortex-sucking backwards drums, strings that stab, and a timeless vocal melody – all masterfully used to express the desperation of discovering too late that you’ll do absolutely anything to rescue a failed relationship. Fans of Jonze’s sparkling 2013 debut album Eject will find nothing to fault here, while those new to his charms will be impressed by the sheer level of songcraft and warm, familiar sounds.
For more: Jonze will be announcing Australian tour dates very soon. For more, check out 2013’s masterful Eject album.