Pacific Avenue – Give It Up For Yourself
For fans of: Oasis, Tribes, Primal Scream
As we slide out of a period of global malaise and totter squinty-eyed back out into the sunshine, Kiama’s Pacific Avenue have released this towering, life-affirming anthem, perfect for getting back among the great unwashed. Like the Britpop heroes to whom they owe a sonic debt, Pacific Avenue write songs of optimism against a backdrop of despair – when the future is burning, it sure is comforting to look back at how far we have come, and celebrate past, personal glories. Speaking of, the band’s previous single Easy Love just missed inclusion in Triple J’s Hottest 100 last year, polling at #108 after being flogged by the youth broadcaster. But in 2021, the climate was wrong for Pacific Avenue. Give It Up For Yourself seems better suited to standing in a field with tens of thousands of your nearest and dearest, face to the heavens, singing words you don’t quite know yet.
For more: Pacific Avenue tour nationally in June with Unearthed winners Tthe Rions.
Jodi Phillis – It’s Not Love
For fans of: Julee Cruise, Cocteau Twins, the Clouds
It’s all about the guitars on Jodi Phillis’ haunting new single. Rarely have washes of reverb and tremolo been used to conjure such an unsettling landscape as Phillis unpacks the deceit of an unnamed lover over ripples of cascading chorus, lonely cowboy fingerpicking, and warped single notes. Every note in the sparse arrangement seems thoughtful. This is a complete mood piece, the likes of which Lana Del Rey would kill for. Phillis is a legendary figure in the Australian music scene, fronting The Clouds in the late 80s/early 90s before moving on to a more serene solo career. If this stunning single is any indication, Phillis’ best work may be on the way.
For more: Phillis’ sixth solo album We Need To Be Free is out 10 June.
Daniel Johns – Emergency Calls Only
For fans of: Silverchair, Björk, Brian Wilson
Daniel Johns was originally meant to release his long-awaited solo album on April Fools’ Day, a date that was a little too on-the-nose for an artist well known for long periods of hibernation. He ultimately pushed the date back three weeks in order to facilitate this last-minute collaboration with the legendary composer/producer Van Dyke Parks, the eccentric genius who draped Silverchair’s Diorama in strings and gave Johns the nickname “Young Modern”. It’s a good thing he did, for this stunning pocket symphony is the highlight of Johns’ new album FutureNever. Emergency Calls Only is the sonic and emotional sequel to the pair’s epic Tuna In The Brine and is every bit as flooring as its predecessor. Johns uses his falsetto to devastating effect as Parks provides Disney-fied strings that swoop and swell. This is a beautiful piece of music.
For more: FutureNever is out now.
Tasman Keith and Genesis Owusu – Cheque
For fans of: Pusha T, Watch the Throne, Baby Keem
“Sounds so soulful, don’t you agree?” Jay-Z famously declared as Kanye chopped an Otis Redding sample. Rising Indigenous artist Keith Tasman was clearly listening, echoing this same question after vamping alongside a soul sample in this hard-slapping collaboration. After a verse of pure spitfire in which Keith somehow manages to sound menacing while also referencing the Powerpuff Girls, the track warps into another sample before the crux of this charming, swaggering tune emerges. “My words made a cheque,” Keith proudly declares of his self-made success, before handing the song over to Owusu, who unleashes a dexterous, tongue-twisted verse filled with memorable boasts like “Aria, eight noms isn’t enough” and “you put your name next to mine, the audacity.” In and out in just over two minutes, this is a first-round knockout blow by two of the country’s finest.
For more: Tasman Keith’s debut album A Colour Album is out 8 July.
Mallrat ft Azealia Banks – Surprise Me
For fans of: Kitty Pryde, Grimes, Maggie Rogers
Mallrat’s meteoric rise was never more apparent than when she revealed the first album she ever bought was 2014’s Broke With Expensive Taste by Azealia Banks. Less than eight years later, Banks was in the studio, telling the 23-year-old the pair “should Eve and Gwen Stefani this shit” on a fresh cut slated for Mallrat’s debut album. Time is a flat circle, it would seem. Mallrat continues her genre-hopping on Surprise Me, providing a breathy falsetto chorus over a hypnotic beat and underwater synths, while Banks offers up a typical brash and bonkers verse to cap the song. Banks even nods to the Aussie origins of the pairing, with a reference to a pussy “tighter than Nicole Kidman’s face”. Indeed.
For more: Mallrat’s debut album Butterfly Blue is out 13 May.
Flume ft Damon Albarn – Palaces
For fans of: Deep Forest, Washed Out, Neon Indian
Flume moved to the northern rivers after returning to Australia from global touring commitments, and a cursory listen to his new music would suggest his most important collaborator now is the flocks of native birds that open the atmospheric, beautiful title track to Palaces. Less a song than a statement of intent, this is clearly a slice of a larger construction, a snippet to whet the appetite. Despite not arriving until the track is nearly three minutes old, Damon Albarn’s unmistakable schoolboy choir vocal slides in and swarms. Flume’s musical influences are often inscrutable, and even with Albarn’s mockney threatening to drag Streten’s cauldron of sounds into Gorillaz territory, it’s to his own credit and lack of ego that Flume serves the song first and foremost, as any great singer would. This is dangerously close to being music to meditate to – the comedown from the Technicolored rave of Flume’s earlier work.
For more: Palaces.
Lisa Mitchell – Apricot
For fans of: Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Holly Throsby
Even as a 16-year-old, it was clear that Lisa Mitchell didn’t belong on the Australian Idol soundstage (she finished sixth in the 2006 season). Closer to the spiritual goddaughter of Sarah Blasko than a smiley duet partner for Millsy, her preceding three albums present a gentle, thoughtful artist who leans towards earthy instrumentation and slow-burning tunes that demand attention. Six years has passed between albums, and not a lot has changed for Mitchell. Apricot is the finest song from new album A Place To Fall Apart, and also the least instant – a barely-there tone poem that moves at a glacial pace, and will reward repeat listens. Delicately picked guitar lines scamper under the vocal like animals in the undergrowth, brushes scrape against the snare as if trying to slip past without disturbing the scenery, and Mitchell whispers melody across the top, in the apricot tree, watching it all unravel.
For more: A Place To Fall Apart is out now.
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers – Girl Sports
For fans of: WAAX, La Tigre, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The excellently named Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are confused. The Canberra four-piece want to know what exactly men get from yelling at women from passing cars, from treating women as lesser beings. They aren’t too concerned with the faulty reasoning, however, instead gleefully chanting “fuck off” repeatedly throughout the tune, as if participants in the pep rally from hell in Nirvana’s famous Teen Spirit clip. Vocalist Anna Ryan describes the song in a press release as “a big middle finger to all the men that have treated us like we’re less than in the music industry”, and the righteous fury blasts through. The song’s premise stems from bassist Jaida Stephenson, who smashed her teeth in a skating mishap, only to be told by a male dentist she should “stick to girl sports”. Luckily, rock music is very much a girls sport.
For more: New EP Pretty Good For A Girl Band is out 13 May.
Pure Milk – Dreams On A Platter
For fans of: the Lucksmiths, Blur, the Mountain Goats
Gold Coast quintet Pure Milk make adorably warm indie pop, the type that was once delivered a few songs at a time on short CD runs through Candle records at the turn of the century. Built on a jaunty rhythm track that recalls Blur’s Coffee and TV – and not unlike that ode to domestic normality – Dreams On A Platter speaks of dry Brisbane grass, dying flowers, and one kid’s move to the big city. As with Pure Milk’s earlier music, there is plenty of anxiety sitting just beneath the bouncy, lo-fi soundtrack. Vocalist Lewis Nitschinsk sounds like a less nasally John Darnielle, and like the Mountain Goats’ frontman, his wry, descriptive lyrics take centre stage, separating Pure Milk from all the indie-pop hopefuls.
For more: Check out their 2020 EP Garden Anxiety.
The Hard Aches – Party Ghost
For fans of: Lit, Bodyjar, the Smith Street Band
Adelaide power-punk band the Hard Aches are aptly named: they deal in three-minute packages of pure emotion. Party Ghost launches with brightly distorted guitars, and unfolds into an anthem that would have been perfectly at home on the American Pie soundtrack if not for Ben David’s Aussie twang and his penchant for Melbourne references. A song about feeling out of place, both emotionally and physically, Party Ghost takes on split personas at times, the jeering “I’m sure you’ll come back when the parties get boring,” seemingly coming from a naysayer doubting his commitment to his new environment. Cahli Blakers of Teenage Joans sweetly harmonises in verse two, adding a bright, Jimmy Eat World feel to David’s despair.
For more: the Hard Aches embark on a 17-date national tour from July.
