Beckah Amani – Lebeka Leka
For fans of: Bat For Lashes, MIA, The JJ
Tanzania-born Australia-based singer Beckah Amani has fused the traditional west African songs her parents taught her from a young age with her teenage love of artists such as Avril Lavigne and Queen. The result of this musical mesh is transcendent songs like Lebeka Leka, a breezy, ethereal tune not a million miles away from the pastoral wistfulness of Kate Bush, with warm pipe strings and island rhythms mixed with AOR production and her own call and response vocals. This is a breath of fresh air.
For more: Check out her previous singles, Standards and Stranger.
Chris Cheney – California
For fans of: Tom Petty, Corgan-era Hole, Jackson Browne
It always feels disingenuous to refer to the “debut single” of an artist like Cheney, who has written and recorded eight albums with rockers The Living End, not to mention the highest-selling Australian single of the 1990s (Second Solution/Prisoner of Society). But California feels like a new start. A dappled slice of FM radio pop that sounds like it’s drifting down from the Hollywood Hills, with glistening peels of guitar that wouldn’t be astray on a Byrds recording, and a honeyed vocal melody skipping over palm-muted verses – it’s worlds away from the quiffed pub rock that he peddles in his day job. With The Living End, Cheney sings a lot about political wrongs and injustices; here he exudes the wide-eyed joy of an expat who has discovered the land of milk and honey. This might be the first true love song Cheney has penned, and it’s a glorious ode to place.
For more: Cheney’s debut album, The Storm Before The Calm, is out 17 June.
Harper Bloom – Red Rocket
For fans of: The Moldy Peaches, Architecture In Helsinki, Josh Pyke
There’s such a thing as too cute. Cast your mind back to the period just after Juno came out, when scores of musicians started knitting Etsy-approved home-made folk tunes, with topics such as tree-climbing and kite-flying suddenly central to the musical lexicon. The difference between these fashionable forays into music, and something like Harper Bloom, is intent. Bloom’s music sounds delightfully simplistic: a heartwarming meet cute and the subsequent trust, love and, ultimately, loss. It comes naturally, and is charming and affecting as hell. And just when the uke and bells sound a little too close to cartoon territory, a mariachi band sweeps in to lift this song far above any sonic comparisons. A beautiful song.
For more: Check out Bloom’s debut EP Faith, Sex & Skin, and follow-up single Sydney Road.
Stephanie Cherote – To Be True
For fans of: Karen Dalton, Skip Spence, Judee Sill
Cherote’s debut album, Some Holy Longing, is filled with evil-sounding pocket symphonies that wrap eerie strings around haunted vocal melodies. Cherote’s tortured lyrics – “remember me as someone that you loved, but did defeat” – make To Be True one of the most singular recordings heard in years. Cherote was sent across the seas to fruitless Interscope writing sessions, but soon realised that major labels weren’t in step with her brooding gothic art. She moved into a semi-converted laundromat and wrote her debut album, scoring intricate string arrangements on GarageBand. A 12-piece orchestra sourced from the ACO helps bring Cherote’s haunting arrangements to life in full colour. It is a masterpiece.
For more: Some Holy Longing is a brilliant debut album, out now.
Camp Cope – Sing Your Heart Out
For fans of: Holly Throsby, Courtney Barnett, Ben Lee
Came Cope’s third album, Running With The Hurricane, moves the Melbourne trio’s sound closer to Americana, with the distortion dialed down and the righteous anger of their last record replaced with something more akin to acceptance, if not outright forgiveness. On this beautiful album closer, we are left with a piano and Georgia McDonald’s affecting voice. It’s a song about realising we are not cast in bronze, that personality is a work in progress, that love comes in different shapes and shades, that the past should only define how you choose to move forward. By the last minute, this piano ballad has become a rousing anthem, the other instruments have crept in, and we are convinced: change isn’t just possible, it’s unavoidable.
For more: Running With The Hurricane is out now.
Elsy Wameyo – River Nile
Nairobi-born, Adelaide-based Elsy Wameyo has a truly unique vocal delivery, firing verses at a rapid clip that somehow crams in 100 syllables a second while also languishing laconically behind the beat. Add an undulating bass line and an unsettling, chopped out sample that seems to be chanting from the abyss, and the whole effect is strange and hypnotic, despite this ostensibly being a club track. Wameyo self-produced this track, and the attention to detail is truly stunning.
For more: Wameyo’s six-song debut EP, Nilotic, is out now.
Lo – Giver, Lover, Pet
For fans of: Hatchie, Holy Holy, Robyn
When Phoebe Bridgers was in Australia, she was asked for her first impressions of a number of Unearthed contenders. Of Perth artist Lo, aka Laura O’Hara, Bridgers remarked: “It reminds me of something I’d see at a festival while walking by and I’d stop because I think it’s cool.” This speaks to how instant Lo’s hyper-coloured pop is; within 30 seconds of Giver, Lover, Pet, the listener is drawn in by a Joy Division-esque rhythm bed, before chorused-out guitars and a Madonna-in-the-1990s vocal kick in. Despite being about a toxic relationship, Giver, Lover, Pet is one of those rare pop gems that demands repeat listens before you settle in and actually listen to the words.
For more: Listen to Lo’s previous single, Disconnect.
Sam Shinazzi – Closing Time
Sydney troubadour Sam Shinazzi wears his heart on his sleeve, as he waits in a bar for a lover who has no intention of turning up. On Closing Time, Shinazzi is holding on to a love that has long died on the vine, accepting the end while wishing it wasn’t so. Warm pedal steel adds to the desolate early-hours feel of this track, while Kate Brianna drifts in and out offering sweet ghostly vocals. One of the best songwriters in the country has just upped his game.
For more: Shinazzi’s sixth album, Days I Won’t Forget, is out 8 April.
King Stingray – Camp Dog
For fans of: Goanna, Arctic Monkeys, Razorlight
In Yirrkala, the town in north-east Arnhem Land where King Stingray grew up, street dogs walk the streets, claiming large patches of public turf as their own. Kids learn early to walk the long way home, lest you run into one and cop a bite to the ankle. “It’s not about fear. It’s about our adoration of the character and personality of the community dogs and their funny traits,” guitarist Roy Kellaway has said about the song, and this comes through in spades, whether it’s the joyous propulsion of the melody, the indie-dance drums, or the blasts of didgeridoo that bark incessantly through the mix. The band will soon play shows with Midnight Oil and Ball Park Music, two perfect bills for this excellent rock group.
For more: Catch the band at Qudos Bank Arena, supporting Midnight Oil, on 23 April.
Motor Ace – Knock Knock
For fans of: Klinger, Foo Fighters, Sunnyboys
Motor Ace haven’t released a note of music for 17 years, the Melbourne rock band having imploded shortly after their third album. Knock Knock was conceived even earlier, but didn’t fit the grander vision for follow-up Shoot This, so the half-finished song remained so. Musically, it would slot nicely onto the band’s debut, with its guitars turned to 11, a nice stutter-stop melody in the verses, and a chorus ripe for Homebake singalongs and Hottest 100 Volume 9. The band reformed and toured in 2019 and this song was floating around then, receiving a warm reception and sounding very much at home between American Shoes and Death Defy. If you think the pandemic has rendered the passing of time in an odd way, put Knock Knock on and watch two decades collapse.
For more: Motor Ace are touring the country in June for the 20th anniversary of their debut album Five Star Laundry.
