FEATURE:
Up Above, Down Under
IN THIS PHOTO: Julia Jacklin/PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Mckk
Awesome Australian Albums from 2022
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I am going to get around to…
IN THIS PHOTO: Body Type/PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Saltmiras
a feature that collates the best debut albums of this year. It has been a busy and very exciting time for music. I wanted to do something a little more specialist. I love Australian artists, and I think the nation still does not get enough attention. Maybe being so far away, and it being difficult for many artists there to tour the U.K. and U.S., I wonder whether people consider the brilliant music coming out of the country. There have been some brilliant Australian albums this year. By that, I mean albums from Australian artists, not necessarily artists based there (though I think most of the artists I am going to include live in Australia). Whether Australian-born or based, below are some incredible albums that people need to have a listen to. It shows the sheer breadth and quality that is coming out of the country. I am a fan of all of these albums, and I do hope that the artists who made them get to tour next year and maybe come to the U.K. That would be awesome. Below are, in my view, the best Australian albums…
IN THIS PHOTO: Jaguar Jonze
FROM this year.
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Confidence Man - TILT
Release Date: 1st April
Label: I Oh You
Producers: Confidence Man
Standout Tracks: Woman/Luvin U Is Easy/Angry Girl
Key Cut: Holiday
Review:
“Confident Songs For Confident People’, the debut album from Melbourne’s Confidence Man, was aptly named given its dancefloor-friendly anthems full of come-ons, self-aggrandisement, and put-downs of crap boyfriends. For the follow-up, ‘Tilt’, they’ve lost none of their front, but have taken the sound back to early 90s house and big beat. Stand-out track, ‘Feels Like A Different Thing’, has the kind of huge vocals you remember from classics by acts like Black Box or Dr. Alban, and ‘Break It Bought It’ sounds like it should be on the soundtrack to seminal NYC ballroom flick Paris Is Burning.
Their signature humour is also here in abundance. ‘Toy Boy’ – described by vocalist Janet Planet as a “J-Lo slut jam” – contains the couplet “Rub you down in butter and serve you on a plate / They say there’s seven wonders but my toy boy makes it eight.” ‘Kid A’ it ain’t, but the feeling ‘Tilt’ will leave you with is unbridled joy. Each of its dozen tracks is expertly engineered to make you move your feet and transport you to an illegal warehouse rave on the outskirts of a provincial town.
Unapologetic bangers with tongue firmly cheek and a furious, feminist bent, ‘Tilt’ is the album you need in your life.
9/10” – CLASH
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava
Release Date: 7th October
Label: KGLW
Standout Tracks: Magma/Lava/Iron Lung
Key Cut: Ice V
Review:
“Born out of jam sessions where the band went into the studio with no preconceived notions other than preselected tunings and rhythms, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard prove yet again on Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava that they haven't run out of ideas even after releasing more records per year than most bands do in a lifetime. Despite its origins as a freeform workout, the final product actually has structure and purpose thanks to the editing job the band's Stu MacKenzie did and the overdubs that the rest of the gang added later. It's definitely not as directed as some of their concept albums; the main point seems to be getting loose and loud while delving into the vagaries of nature and their standby concern: global catastrophe. The songs are long, but don't meander much -- the guitars have more bite than a pit-full of snakes and MacKenzie made sure to add dynamic shifts and the occasional chorus as he went. It's nothing new for a band that has displayed no fear when it comes to stretching out past the ten-minute mark; they've never been tied to any rules and that's what makes them so freeing and inspiring to listen to. If they want to dip into some reggae-adjacent grooving ("Mycelium") that's totally cool. If they want to veer into cop-show jazz with wah-wah pedals, staccato bass runs, and silky flutes, more power to them. Murky Afropop blues jams -- "Magma" -- that unspool over nine tightly scripted minutes? Yes, that works. Heavy prog-jazz doom rockers -- "Gliese 710" -- that combine Brubeck-on-downers piano chords with blown-out, amp-inflaming guitars, and far-out sax blowing? Perfect! Also on point are rippling funk rockers ("Iron Lung") and ("Hell's Itch") that have the feel of Santana, -- if they were beach rats from Australia. The latter song really lets loose with some fret-melting guitar dueling that escapes being indulgent thanks to the sheer intensity of the playing. When the song ends after 14 sweaty minutes, the first instinct isn't to faint from exhaustion, it's to rewind the song to the beginning and jump back into the magical world they created. That's the feeling the whole album engenders. Unlike some of their efforts, which can wear out their welcome in spots, there isn't a moment of boredom or repetition here. Amazingly, it's another fresh start for the band that's on par with career high points like Butterfly 3000, Nonagon Infinity, or Flying Microtonal Banana. King Gizzard are restless and brilliant and listeners must follow everything they do like a hawk because they might unleash something classic, just like they did with Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava” – AllMusic
Jaguar Jonze – BUNNY MODE
Release Date: 3rd June
Label: Nettwerk Music Group
Buy: https://jaguarjonze.bandcamp.com/album/bunny-mode
Standout Tracks: KNOWN MY NAME/LOUD/PUNCHLINE
Key Cut: TRIGGER HAPPY
Review:
“I’m not gonna sleep below the glass ceiling,” Jaguar Jonze sings on her debut album, her voice barely a whisper.
Then, moments later with the volume turned right up: “You could’ve destroyed me, but then I got loud.”
This defiance is at the heart of Bunny Mode, an 11-track juggernaut that is cutting in its specificity. Its title refers to a survival tactic that the artist employed as a survivor of childhood abuse: a freeze response to any safety threats, like a frightened rabbit. The record is a middle finger to oppressors and abusers, as the artist – real name Deena Lynch – breaks free of their chokehold, rising anew.
The Brisbane musician, who released two EPs under the Jaguar Jonze moniker in 2020 and 2021, leans into an esoteric sound across Bunny Mode, fortified by the unbridled anger in her lyrics. Sonically and thematically, the record bears similarities to Halsey’s 2021 album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power – both take cues from industrial music, building unapologetically feminist narratives and rebuttals upon glorious walls of sound. Despite the experimentation and boundary-pushing, it’s all still underpinned by pop and a knack for melody, as on the passionate slow-builder Little Fires, which Lynch performed as part of Eurovision’s Australian decider in February.
While there’s much to like musically – Bunny Mode moves away from the loopy spaghetti western sounds of Lynch’s early work to experiment with darker, heavier sounds, and the singer’s vocal chops are, as always, impressive – the album’s real power is in the lyrical details. It’s another piece of the activism puzzle for Lynch, who has spent much of the last two years on the forefront of fighting for change as a leader in the Australian #MeToo movement, shining a light on misbehaviour in the music industry. It also explores the more personal process of healing and recovery following trauma.
These many facets are visible through different threads of the album: on one of the more downbeat tracks, Drawing Lines, Lynch sings silkily of the importance of setting boundaries. The fury is more evident on tracks such as Who Died and Made You King, all angular guitars and punchy electropop beats, as Lynch spits, almost mockingly: “You’re sick and a victim of your own disease.” It’s thrilling to hear the tables turned on the powers that be in this way – a reclamation of space, a bold statement of self-sovereignty.
The highlight is Punchline, which turns a sharp eye on to tokenism and racism within the entertainment industry. In a similar fashion to Camp Cope’s The Opener, the Taiwanese Australian artist regurgitates box-ticking sentiments from corporate bigwigs to reveal their hollowness: “We love culture but make sure it’s to our very liking / Make it milky, make it plain and not too spicy.” Over wailing guitars and layered vocals, Lynch makes herself in her own image, rejecting the condescension of the white-centric industry that still sees artists of colour as an exotic other.
Lynch’s cohesive world-building across the album makes for a compelling, absorbing and often intimate listening experience. Her many creative personas – musically as Jaguar Jonze, visually as Spectator Jonze and photographically as Dusky Jonze – swirl through the record, but she emerges as a singularity: a woman who has, despite everything, survived.
After all the noise and the rage, the fire and the passion, it’s barely a whisper, again, that ends the record. The instrumentals cut out for Lynch’s controlled vocals to deliver their final, stinging words to the patriarchy and all that enable it: “It’s always been a man-made monster only a woman can destroy” – The Guardian
Body Type - Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising
Release Date: 20th May
Label: Poison City Records
Producer: Jonathan Boulet
Buy: https://bodytypemusic.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-dangerous-but-nothings-surprising
Standout Tracks: A Line/Buoyancy/Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising
Key Cut: The Charm
Review:
“Body Type’s debut album should have come out two years ago, right behind a pair of buzz-generating EPs. But of course the pandemic intervened, dividing the Sydney quartet by geography and scuttling tour plans. That’s a common enough tale, but there’s nothing common about this album: It’s a self-possessed statement of intent and one of the best Australian debut albums in recent memory.
Everything appealing about those early EPs is refined on ‘Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising’, from sudden tempo shifts and the conversational push and pull of guitars to alternating lead singers and biting, feminist lyrical commentary awaiting. A sharply honed post-punk unit that’s often more reflective of British forebears like Electrelane and The Long Blondes than specific Australian touchstones, Body Type balance thrilling abrasion and propulsion with layered melodicism and wonky internal twists and turns.
Body Type’s urgency on this record might come down to the fact that it was recorded in just eight days, with Party Dozen’s spontaneity-friendly Jonathan Boulet at the helm. But it’s also the rotating cast of vocalist and songwriters that keeps the listener somewhat unbalanced from song to song, always anticipating a dramatic scene change. Guitarists Sophie McComish and Annabel Blackman and bassist Georgia Wilkinson-Derums all contribute on that front, with drummer Cecil Coleman holding the fort with range and finesse.
Blackman opens the album with ‘A Line’, whose chewy bass line and deadpan repeated vocals evoke current UK bands like Dry Cleaning and Wet Leg (though the song predates the latter’s debut). Inspired by a visualisation technique designed to bypass obsessive thinking, it re-introduces the rippling exchanges between all four players. Wilkinson-Derums’ punkier ‘The Brood’ takes a surprisingly bouncy approach to its David Cronenberg-inspired vision of a woman’s anger materialising as violence.
Equally acidic is McComish’s account of the music industry’s condescending treatment toward women on ‘The Charm’. Against back-and-forth guitars worthy of Sleater-Kinney, she turns an unwelcome piece of advice into a snarky rebuttal, drawing out the chorus refrain “I’ve got charm” with obvious relish.
From there, the album continues to hold attention across no shortage of contrasts. It’s rare for a band so relatively new to command so much control across those stark shifts, often within a single song. Case in point: after a bright and jangly start, ‘Futurism’ grows eerily slow before accelerating to exit with a palpable head rush. Meanwhile, Blackman’s poem-based interlude ‘Hot Plastic Punishment’ earns a frenetic answer in Wilkinson-Derums’ gnashing anthem ‘Buoyancy’, speaking to how naturally the band members’ creativity feeds each other.
The record finishes with another spiky array of approaches, including the more danceable but no less withering ‘Flight Path’, about an encounter with someone who deemed #MeToo unfair to men. Named after Eve Babitz’s influential 1979 novel, ‘Sex & Rage’ applies lurching, Pavement-esque hooks to lyrics about appreciating life and art in the moment. It fits in neatly with the following ‘An Animal’, a darker entry that gradually builds portent via overlapping vocals from McComish and Wilkinson-Derums.
It’s the equal showcasing of these distinctive singers and personalities within one band that makes this debut album so engaging. Maintaining an intuitive bond throughout so many swerves and feints, Body Type are locked into a formidable connection indeed” – NME
Hatchie - Giving the World Away
Release Date: 22nd April
Label: Secretly Canadian
Standout Tracks: The Rhythm/Quicksand/Thinking Of
Key Cut: Enchanted
Review:
“The music of Hatchie is less a genre and more a mood. The project of Brisbane-based Harriette Pilbeam, Hatchie creates cinematic, sweeping dream-pop that evokes the longing of the Cranberries and melancholy of Cocteau Twins. While Harriette’s first full-length album as Hatchie, ‘Keepsake’, was all about the ins and outs of romantic love, this follow-up is more inquisitive and self-exploratory, and just a touch darker - while still building on her signature nostalgic sound. Lead single ‘This Enchanted’ is classic Hatchie, an earworm drenched in wistful reverb and fuzzed-out vocals, but ‘Giving the World Away’ transcends past dream-pop into more adventurous territories. The daring ‘The Rhythm’ recalls ‘90s trip-hop and psychedelia, while ‘Quicksand’, co-written with Olivia Rodrigo producer Dan Nigro, has her somberly looking inwards: “I used to think that this was something I could die for / I hate admitting to myself that I was never sure,” she sings. “I’m trying, but what’s the use in trying when I’m left with all this disillusionment?” But Harriette doesn’t let herself get too mournful, even when she is asking questions of her own self and reclaiming her self-confidence. Album highlight ‘Thinking Of’ is a journey into the scary world of love, and how it’s worth a leap anyway: “How do you know?” she sings. “So you wanna be in love? I wanna be in love.” ‘Take My Hand’ was inspired by a Red Hand Files entry by Nick Cave, where he writes to a young woman struggling with her body image. “Trust what you fear, use it to your advantage,” she sings. Later on, she laments: “You don’t have to change.” It’s good advice” – DIY
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Endless Rooms
Release Date: 6th May
Label: Sub Pop
Producer: Matt Duffy
Standout Tracks: Tidal River/Dive Deep/Endless Rooms
Key Cut: My Echo
Review:
“The third Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever album might have been written and recorded under unusual lockdown-enforced conditions, but the result is of a piece with their other recordings. Endless Rooms is a shimmering, searching album built on graceful guitar interplay, hooky melodies, and often breathtaking songs that threaten to whirl the listener away into a world where jangle pop reigns supreme. It feels like they could crank this stuff out in their sleep, but they have too much invested in their art to do that. It's clear from how fierce the guitars sound and how committed the vocals are that they are putting their hearts into the music and it's impossible as a listener not to feel that. The power of the rhythmic section is also something that's hard to ignore, and they are as rock-solid as ever here with the guitars glimmering and flashing around them. Something does sound a little different on Endless Rooms, though. The guitars have a little more bite to them, especially on tracks like "My Echo" or "Tidal River," where the band intentionally push the recording meters into the red and keep the fidelity pegged around the middle area. After Sideways to New Italy, the band could have decided to get slicker and grow their sound to arena-size dimensions. That they kept it small and slightly scuffed up is something to celebrate. They certainly sound energized and that's no small part of the reason why. The state of the world as they were writing the album is another reason, and many of the songs feature the band reacting and reflecting on the social upheaval around the globe and in their native Australia. It never gets too heavy, though, and the guitars are so transporting that one doesn't even need to hear the words to get a sense of the feeling behind them. Endless Rooms is another strong outing from the group, definitive proof that they are still gleefully exploring their sound and are more than willing to take whatever approach is needed to put the songs across” – AllMusic
Mallrat - Butterfly Blue
Release Date: 13th May
Label: Nettwerk Music Group
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/mallrat/butterfly-blue
Standout Tracks: Surprise Me/Your Love/Rockstar
Key Cut: Butterfly Blue
Review:
“From debut EP ‘Uninvited’ to breakout singles ‘Charlie’ and ‘Groceries’, Mallrat has developed a knack for constructing trip hop-tinged earworms that throb with the dull ache of navigating modern dating as a young adult.
On ‘Butterfly Blue’, though, the Brisbane-based songwriter takes steps towards a bigger amalgam of influences. Gentle acoustic ballads ‘It’s Not My Body, It’s Mine’ and ‘Arms Length’ touch on twangy country stylings, while the airy production and buzzy electronics on ‘Your Love’ feel vaguely reminiscent of hyperpop and the aptly-titled ‘Rockstar’ sees lethargic, bleary-eyed vocals and gauzy instrumentals descend into a doomy zenith of fuzzy, reverb-laden guitars.
The album doesn’t see a complete betrayal of her roots though, and ‘Surprise Me’ - a laidback and strutting hip hop-tinted cut with an efficacious guest spot from Azealia Banks - takes an already assured record to some of its highest heights, before the hazy and distorted ‘Love Guitar’ ramps up the anxiety with guttural guitars and fluttery instrumentals that tremble like the inner linings of a stomach awaiting a reply to a risky text.
Title track and pop noir closer ‘Butterfly Blue’ then comes as a bit of a curveball, combining stripped-back strumming guitars with a simple and circling chorus line, but its placid pop hooks serve to affirm Mallrat’s breadth in scope, and her flair for fashioning disaffected bedroom pop anthems for anyone with a habit of crying in the kitchen at parties.
Just as butterflies can retain some memories of life as a caterpillar while their brains and bodies undergo a total rewiring, ‘Butterfly Blue’ sees Mallrat emerge as somewhat of a transformed entity, one that is fully-grown and glimmering” – DIY
The Lazy Eyes - Songbook
Release Date: 21st April
Label: The Lazy Eyes
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-lazy-eyes/songbook
Standout Tracks: The Island/Tangerine/Fuzz Jam
Key Cut: Where’s My Brain???
Review:
“Amid endless political turmoil and an adolescence tainted by restriction, The Lazy Eyes emerge with a coming-of-age record drenched in wide-eyed optimism. Within their euphoric debut, the chaos of modern life is disintegrated through a distinctively Australian concoction of sun-soaked psychedelia.
An inherently Gen-Z take on psych-rock, ‘Songbook’ chooses to nudge the genre into the future, rather than imitate its past. Lead single ‘Fuzz Jam’ is a sprawling delight of colourful riffs propelled by an intense baseline, while the frantic energy of ‘Where’s My Brain’ draws subtle comparisons to King Gizzard and Post Animal. ‘Tangerine’ sees the full force of their experimentation, with fuzzed guitar, aerated vocals, and even glockenspiel, all anchored by animalistic drumming and the occasional sweet harmony.
Lyrically, it’s charmingly unsophisticated, with simple tales of making tea, sleeping late, and getting high accentuated by a cohesive sonic universe that expands on each listen. Steeped in nostalgia yet hopeful for the future, they depart on ‘Cheesy Love Song’, a woozy declaration of infatuation which carefully imparts innocent anecdotes of desire.
On ‘Songbook’ The Lazy Eyes are showing off, offering the full kaleidoscope of their insane talent. It’s an invitation into a dreamy utopia of their own invention – and you’ll want to stay.
9/10” – CLASH
Daniel Johns - FutureNever
Release Date: 22nd April
Label: BMG Music Australia
Producers: Beau Golden/Casey Golden/Daniel Johns/Dave Jenkins Jr/Jake Meadows/Louis Schoorl/MXXWLL/Peking Duk/Sam La More/Slumberjack/This Week in the Universe/What So Not
Standout Tracks: Where Do We Go?/I Feel Electric/Those Thieving Birds, Pt. 3
Key Cut: Mansions
Review:
“I know I have a tendency to go missing – but I’m back now,” Daniel Johns told fans when announcing his second solo album ‘FutureNever’. The elusive, enigmatic and often unknowable former Silverchair frontman has spent much of the past year trying to show us the real him. His hit podcast, Who Is Daniel Johns?, went in deep on unraveling the mythology around his years as a teen grunge sensation wrestling with fame, public mental health battles, musical ambitions outrunning a blinkered world’s expectations, marriage to Natalie Imbruglia, Silverchair’s demise, and his troubled, tabloid-dodging years since.
Now, no longer running from his history, he’s looking to celebrate his chameleonic legacy. As his letter to fans continued: “‘FutureNever’ is a place where your past, present and future collide – in the ‘FutureNever’ the quantum of your past experiences become your superpower.”
Opener ‘Reclaim Your Heart’ is for the fans of the blockbuster whimsy found on ‘Diorama’. This mode, complete with a sick and wailing guitar solo, makes an almighty but welcome return. In that ‘Diorama’ flight of fancy, we also have the euphoric ballad ‘When We Take Over’ and ‘Emergency Calls Only’. The latter is a collaboration with Van Dyke Parks, who added the celestial orchestration to ‘Diorama’ and the more soaring parts of Silverchair’s last album ‘Young Modern’. The release of ‘FutureNever’ was delayed to make room for this song, and it makes for a true album highlight as an operatic baroque gem that follows in the lineage of ‘Across The Night’, ‘Tuna In The Brine’ and ‘All Across The World’ – but delivered with a chrome finish and proggy cyborg Beatles flourishes.
In that spirit of moving Johns’ past along, the record even comes with a couple of sequels. ‘FreakNever’ rips the teenage angst from Silverchair’s 1997 grunge smash ‘Freak’, shifts the tense, and translates the song’s societal dread into a sombre, West End horror epilogue of Johns’ trauma from the time. As guest vocalist Purplegirl chillingly narrates: “No more maybes, the world stole a baby, took his soul on tour, and made a deal with the devil – he didn’t want to be different, but fame’s a disease.”
Another follow-up comes in ‘Those Thieving Birds (Part 3)’ picking up the mantle from its two swooping ‘Young Modern’ predecessors. It furthers the series in a more controlled but no less cinematic manner, Johns dramatically declaring: “No more big lies, no more goodbyes… As long as you and I are together”.
Johns shows off his range on the rest of ‘FutureNever’. ‘Mansions’ and ‘Where Do We Go’ take the street-smart, slick pop-meets-R&B of his solo debut ‘Talk’ but lift it with some genre-defying classicism. ‘Cocaine Killer’ featuring Peking Duk sees Johns successfully dabble in FKA Twigs-esque arty trip-hop, there’s an industrial rock edge to ‘Stand ‘Em Up’ featuring What So Not, and ‘I Feel Electric’ carries some of that Prince-meets-garage-rock danceability from ‘Young Modern’ – albeit a little freer. Freedom is certainly the vibe: Hell, the blissed-out psych trip of ‘Someone Call An Ambulance’ wouldn’t sound out of place in a Wayne Coyne fever dream.
While there’s a lot of Daniel Johns at his best here, this isn’t ‘The Best Of Daniel Johns’. There’s rock bravado throughout, but you won’t get a whiff of ‘Frogstomp’. Styles and eras clash, but ‘Neon Ballroom’ it ain’t. There is, however, a vulnerability, curiosity and adventure that makes ‘FutureNever’ unmistakably Johns. That kid who once asked you to wait for tomorrow is living in it today” – NME
Julia Jacklin – PRE PLEASURE
Release Date: 26th August
Labels: Polyvinyl/Transgressive
Producers: Julia Jacklin/Marcus Paquin
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/julia-jacklin/pre-pleasure
Standout Tracks: Lydia Wears a Cross/Love, Try Not to Let Go/I Was Neon
Key Cut: Too in Love to Die
Review:
“Singer and songwriter Julia Jacklin's second full-length, Crushing (2019), was a devastatingly raw and nuanced breakup album that broke her into the Top Ten in her native Australia. For the follow-up, she entered the studio with her third different producer in as many albums, Marcus Paquin (the Weather Station, the National), who helped open up her sound with assistance from a backing band that includes members of the Weather Station and, in a few cases, an orchestra featuring string arrangements by Owen Pallett. Another change-up on the resulting PRE PLEASURE, a record that seems to dwell in relationship(s) limbo, is that Jacklin wrote much of it on a Roland keyboard with built-in band tracks instead of on guitar. In the end, these differences, while notable, are somewhat subtle, as the songs still sound distinctively and intimately hers. The track list's sequencing loads the front end with midtempo soft rockers, including opener "Lydia Wears a Cross" ("I'd be a believer/If I thought we had a chance"), which employs some of those canned drums, at least to start. Songs like "Love, Try Not to Let Go" and the elegant "Ignore Tenderness" ("I've been thinking back/To when things went offtrack") continue to dig into underlying emotions and motivations while introducing minimal strings. The distortion-fueled, uptempo "I Was a Neon" then leads into the heart of PRE PLEASURE, the stark and vulnerable "Too in Love to Die," a Jacklin all-timer with only organ, acoustic guitar, and ghostly voice accompaniment, which is paired with the spare folk entry "Less of a Stranger." While the mood lifts for the remaining tracks, PRE PLEASURE never stops being affecting, with songs such as "Moviegoer," a slinky, evocative narrative about films ("Someone thin is smoking/With a look all-knowing"), their fans, and filmmakers ("40 million dollars/Still nobody loves you") that incorporates breathy, atmospheric woodwinds. Poignant closer "End of a Friendship" brings together expansive strings, a relaxed rhythm section, shimmery guitar delay, a tender, lyrical melody, and eventual squealing feedback before ending on the opener's mechanical drums. Although Crushing is a hard act to follow, Jacklin pulls it off gracefully here, with an album whose dramatic arc and songs hold their own” – AllMusic
Darren Hayes – Homosexual
Release Date: 7th October
Labels: Powdered Sugar/Absolute
Producer: Darren Hayes
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/darren-hayes/homosexual
Standout Tracks: Let’s Try Being in Love/Do You Remember?/Poison Blood
Key Cut: Feel Like It’s Over
Review:
“Darren Hayes rose to fame as one half of the hugely successful Australian duo Savage Garden in the late 90s. With two multi-platinum albums under their belt, it came as a surprise to fans when they split in 2001. Hayes went on to forge a solo career starting with his debut album ‘Spin’ in 2002, which saw him take elements of what made Savage Garden successful and push his own musical boundaries. Second album ‘The Tension and the Spark’ was the beginning of Hayes really experimenting with his sound, something that continued through 2007’s ‘This Delicate Thing We’ve Made’ and 2011’s ‘Secret Codes and Battleships’. Incredibly it’s been 11 years since Hayes’ last solo record but today he’s finally back with fifth album ‘Homosexual’.
‘Homosexual’ is an important record for Hayes and it’s one that confronts a lot of trauma from the singer-songwriter’s past. In the closet until 2006, Hayes was married to a woman at the beginning of Savage Garden’s rise to fame, and he’s said in interviews recently that being signed to a major label limited his ability to be open about his sexuality. In many ways, ‘Homosexual’ is rectifying those experiences with Hayes fully embracing his sexuality and his history, while celebrating love in all its forms. From the colourful artwork through to the attention-grabbing title, it’s clear that Hayes is in a good place when it comes to self-acceptance.
The music across the 14-track set delves deep into pop and dance territory drawing influence from the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s. Lyrically it’s Hayes’ boldest work to date and it’s worth noting that he has written, produced, mixed and performed every song on the record. Opening with lead single “Let’s Try Being In Love”, Hayes sounds fresher and freer than he’s ever sound. That jaw-dropping falsetto that always been his showpiece is on display as the track builds from a low-key dance track into a euphoric celebration of being out and proud.
Every track on ‘Homosexual’, with the exception of ‘Poison Blood’, runs for over 5 minutes with a couple – ‘Hey Matt’ and ‘All You Pretty Things’ – clocking in at closer to 10 minutes. In an age where pop songs are getting shorter (2 and a half minutes in the norm these days), it’s refreshing to hearing a body of work that’s allowed to breathe. Hayes is afforded that opportunity by being free from major labels. The two-part title track – ‘Homosexual (Act One)’ and ‘Homosexual (Act Two)’ – provide stark contrasts with one another. The first is a bouncy carefree-sounding pop gem exploring self-discovery while the second has a darker electro-pop feel with lyrics suggesting that perhaps God is a homosexual.
Elsewhere on the record Hayes unflinchingly explores depression on the dark beat-driven ‘Hey Matt’, ‘Music Video’ uses an interesting vocal effect to make Hayes sound like a youngster as he reminisces about growing up and coming to grips with what made him different, and ‘Euphoric Equation’ is an intriguing mash-up of the Pet Shop Boys and Madonna that tackles domestic violence with Hayes taking aim at his father (something he explores even further on ‘Nocturnal Animal’).
The highlight on the record is the heartbreaking ‘Feel Like It’s Over’, which sees Hayes singing about a relationship where the passion has fizzled out and been replaced by unspoken words and a feeling of loss. The album’s closing track, ‘Birth’, is the set’s most experimental moment as Hayes explores his lower range as he battles with his true self showing itself.
‘Homosexual’ is a cohesive body of work from Hayes that ranks amongst the best material he’s put out to date. You can choose to groove to the beats or delve deep into the personal lyrics, or do both at the same time, and you’ll be rewarded. Hayes deserves to be held high among the best pop artists in the music industry and his work is certainly far more interesting than the cookie cutter pop that clogs up the charts these days. ‘Homosexual’ is a triumph and it’s a direction that suits Hayes down to the ground” – Entertainment Focus
Camp Cope - Running with the Hurricane
Release Date: 25th March
Label: Run for Cover Records
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/camp-cope/running-with-the-hurricane
Standout Tracks: Blue/Jealous/The Mountain
Key Cut: Running with the Hurricane
Review:
“Camp Cope know that it is all too easy to get swept away by a storm bigger than yourself. Since emerging from Melbourne’s punk scene in 2015, the trio—composed of vocalist and guitarist Georgia Maq, bassist Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich, and drummer Sarah Thompson—have vehemently opposed the misogyny that is all too common in the music industry. “The Opener,” a breakout single from 2018’s How to Socialise & Make Friends, transformed the band’s own experiences with sexism into a defiant feminist anthem: “It’s another man telling us to book a smaller venue… Now look how far we’ve come not listening to you!” In the four years since “The Opener,” some systems have evolved while others remain frustratingly intact. But Camp Cope have changed and their third album, Running With the Hurricane, has a secret to share: There’s stability to be found within the squall.
Camp Cope started working on Running With the Hurricane in 2019, but the onset of the pandemic forced them to pause. Over the next couple years, as COVID and environmental catastrophes ravaged the planet, the bandmates refocused their priorities; Maq returned to her prior career path, nursing, and helped vaccinate fellow Australians. When the band finally began recording in 2021, they embraced the twangy lightness of the pop-country tunes that Maq turned to for comfort. Songs like the title track or “Blue” could be lost mid-2000s Chicks cuts—Australian and Southern accents alike stretch vowels like taffy. Shifting away from the gnawing, emo-inflected power-pop of their first two albums, Camp Cope ask: Can softness be as invigorating as fury?
Running With the Hurricane answers this question with a collection of songs that focus on matters of the heart and mind. “We could have gotten even angrier and even harder,” Maq told NPR. “But we didn’t. We went the opposite way because we refused to let the world harden us.” Their emotional range has broadened with them. “Now I pull the sound around me and I sing myself to sleep, you’ll see how gentle I can be,” Maq sings on “The Mountain,” one of several songs about finding a newfound peace in vulnerability. But she doesn’t pretend that this growth completely frees her from uglier inclinations. There’s plenty of anxiety in the form of unanswered texts and casual sex, and on the jangly “Jealous,” Maq compares her own attention-seeking behavior and longing for affection to a love interest’s pet dog.
Running With the Hurricane is at its strongest when Camp Cope harness the swirling turmoil and ride it towards self-awareness. On the twangy “Blue,” Maq explores how the same loneliness that feels so isolating in one’s head can become a means of connection: “It’s all blue, that’s why I fit in with you.” The sentiment returns later on “The Mountain,” a gorgeous anthem of self-determination. “I climbed the mountain blind, I turned around to find a heart as complicated as mine,” Maq sings, perhaps pulling inspiration from the same Fleetwood Mac ballad the Chicks once did. The title track is one of the band’s best: Maq reckons with her self-doubt atop a galloping melody and layered harmonies that bring to mind the blooming self-realization of Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud. “There’s no other way to go,” she exuberantly proclaims. “The only way out is up.”
Just a few years ago, Camp Cope were determined to barrel through the hard parts; now, they’ve opened themselves to life’s chaos, ready to cruise alongside it. This shift from outward-looking protest to inward-facing resolve comes to a glorious climax on the album’s closer, “Sing Your Heart Out.” Featuring additional guitar from Courtney Barnett, it begins as a slow-building piano ballad in which Maq pledges herself as a vessel of love, in service to herself and others. “You are not your past, not your mistakes, not your money, not your pain, not the years you spent inside,” she proclaims, as her bandmates fall into place alongside her. “You can change and so can I.” As the song explodes into fireworks, they repeat the final verse like a mantra. It’s hard not to believe in its truth” – Pitchfork
Partner Look – By the Book
Release Date: 4th February
Label: Spunk Records
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/partner-look/by-the-book
Standout Tracks: Partner Look/Speed Limit/Grasshopper
Key Cut: Rodeo Tragic
Review:
“Brandishing matching outfits, simple lyrics, and even a theme song, Partner Look make a fairly lightweight first impression. But there’s surprising staying power to the Melbourne quartet’s soft-stepping indie pop, which gets loopier and more askew over the course of this debut album.
That would-be theme song, ‘Partner Look’, opens the proceedings, playfully unpacking the German term for when partners begin to dress like each other. That’s all too fitting for this band, who are two sets of partners: German sisters Ambrin and Anila Hasnain, and Dainis Lacey and Lachlan Denton. It’s also a perfectly catchy introduction, a pure slice of daydreamy bubblegum.
Formed in 2018 as a wedding gift for a friend in Germany, Partner Look easily convey the sense of eavesdropping on a charming four-way hang. That instant feeling of compatibility and comfort comes not just from them being partners (or siblings), but also from playing together elsewhere. Ambrin and Lacey both appear in Cool Sounds, and Anila and Denton in Studio Magic. All four take turns at lead vocals here, adding to the casual, conversational flow.
Fans of Denton’s work in The Ocean Party, Pop Filter and his collaborative albums with Emma Russack will appreciate his low-key pop instincts here, beginning right from that opening track. And Lacey’s cracked, plaintive vocals carry over nicely from Cool Sounds. But it’s especially a treat to hear the Hasnain sisters come to the fore, starting with Ambrin’s horse-inspired single ‘Rodeo Tragic’. It sounds like something that Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus would sneak onto one of his later solo albums, when the stakes were lower and he was just enjoying himself. Anila’s song ‘Water’ follows suit, unfolding with endearing lightness.
But there are more anxious turns, too, like the mesmerising post-punk of ‘Speed Limit’, which borrows its mantra-like chorus (“Only sleep cures fatigue”) from a well-known Victorian road campaign. Evoking the sinewy pop minimalism of Young Marble Giants, it’s more tense and absurd than breezy. Likewise, ‘Grasshopper’ starts out sounding like a children’s song but instead tells the stranger story of an insect accidentally crushed beneath someone’s sandal.
Other songs poignantly return to a theme of dislocation that’s perhaps inevitable when half of the band members have been separated from their homeland during the pandemic. ‘Deutschland’ is in fact Denton’s love letter to the Hasnains’ native Germany – complete with some German lyrics – while ‘Geelong’ describes seeing Melbourne friends leave the capital city in favour of the title’s mellower regional centre on the coast.
That idea of home as a malleable concept comes out most in the closing ‘Endless Plains’, on which Denton absorbs an ocean-top sunrise while aboard an aeroplane from Singapore. That inspires him to muse about his relationship to Australia, lamenting the country’s colonial history while admitting the appeal of its wide-open geography. “It’s bigger than a name, or any political game,” he sings.
On an album that starts off dissecting the winsome in-joke of the band’s name, that parting track might just be the song that inspires someone to hit play again and listen more closely for such quieter, meaningful moments. They’re very much there on ‘By The Book’, nestled between the perky pop gems swapped gamely between four intertwined souls” – NME