The former One Direction star’s latest 13-track record may not grab you on first listen the way his previous solo albums did, but the strength of ‘Harry’s House’ lies in its ability to slow peel back layers of intimacies with each repeated listen.
Music Music ReviewsWelcome Home to ‘Harry’s House’: A Review
Editors' Picks Music Music ReviewsExploring Twenties’ Restlessness With Catchy Pop-Punk Umph: A Review Of Bugs’ ‘Cooties’
In their new album ‘Cooties’, Brisbane trio Bugs dive into their sound evolution now combining surfer-punk music with a powerful pop-umph. The combination creates incredibly catchy songs that use 2000’s pop-punk radio classics to frame the feelings of toxic masculinity and loneliness that inhabit our twenties.
Music Music ReviewsVelvet Bloom bring genre-bending brilliance to debut EP ‘Glimmer’
Melbourne-based neo-soul collective Velvet Bloom serve up familiar yet simultaneously fresh sounds on their debut EP ‘Glimmer’, a testament to their instinctive experimentation in mixing and melding different musical styles.
Music Music ReviewsBending Pop Traditions Into New Shapes: A Review of Charli XCX’s ‘Crash’
‘Crash’ is a masterclass in subverting female pop expectations and dives headfirst into territories of unknown soundscapes: mainstream chart-toppers are the industry’s unstoppable force, and Charli XCX is the immovable object in its way.
Music Music ReviewsGrappling Grief with Playful Production: A Review of Gang of Youths’ ‘angel in realtime.’
Go and listen to Gang of Youths’ most recent album angel in realtime., before you keep reading for soaring strings, cinematic atmospheres, and an evolution of euphoria.
Music Music ReviewsAlive and Living: ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You’ by Big Thief
Big Thief’s new album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, is a 20-track record that surveys love and landscape in its most primal, most road-trip form.
Music Music ReviewsDeath and Rebirth in California: ‘The Dream’ by alt-J
In The Dream, alt-J firmly plant themselves in the American landscape, in all of its heat-stroke and bluesy glory. The record is like basking under Californian sun, perched between debauchery and the luxury of Chateau corridors, before plodding through the Wild West. There is a lucrative richness to the harmonies and guitars, a slowness that can only be paired with ice-cold Coca Cola and a slew of buzzing flies.
Music Music ReviewsReview – Don’t Kiss Ur Friends
In the midst of a time that seems to make little sense, MAY-A’s debut EP Don’t Kiss Ur Friends is like a steaming mug of tea to soothe the soul—its title an ironic nod to the distance we are forced to keep from the people closest to us.
Music Music ReviewsKylie’s Disco: New Mastery of a Familiar Genre
Kylie’s 15th studio album brings a newfound sense of self to a genre that she knows better than perhaps any of her contemporaries. The result is a disco-pop album that feels familiar at first, but this time—and surprisingly for the first time in her career—on her own terms.
Music Music ReviewsMixing Colours Expanded: Polyphonic Bliss in Monotonous Times
The expanded edition of Roger and Brian Eno’s Mixing Colours is a timely injection of effervescence into the dullness of a Melbourne winter; 25 richly-layered yet elusively nebulous tracks, depicting all the colours, minerals and textures we might forget by the time we’re out of this supposedly interminable present.
Music Music ReviewsThe Persistent Genius of Bob Dylan: Unravelling Murder Most Foul
Will Minack
After an eight-year drought of original material, the enigmatic folk icon returns with a 17-minute cultural odyssey centred on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Music Music ReviewsNiall Horan ‘Heartbreak Weather’ Album Review: PLEASE SIR, MAY I HAVE SOME DEVOTION?
Markella Votzourakis
Niall Horan uses his second studio album Heartbreak Weather to analyse the rise and fall of a relationship from different points of view. But he is rarely accusatory or even particularly self-pitying throughout, which is refreshing and consistent with his clean, easy-going marketing image. How coincidental!
Music Music ReviewsReview—Scott & Charlene’s Wedding at The Tote Hotel
Will Minack
Scott & Charlene’s Wedding returned to the Tote last month, launching a batch of wry, restless tracks from their new EP When in Rome, Carpe Diem.
Craig Dermody and co. took to the stage nearly an hour late, just moments before midnight. Nobody in the Tote crowd seemed to mind. The Melbourne-based band were playing on their home ground – and kicking into the wind.
Music Music ReviewsReview—Carly Rae Jepsen, The Dedicated Tour 2019 Melbourne
Monique O’Rafferty
Last Monday 2 December, Canadian pop sensation Carly Rae Jepsen brought The Dedicated Tour to The Forum, Melbourne for a sold out show that could only be described as a modern-day disco extravaganza.
Music Music ReviewsReview—Middle Kids, New Songs For Old Problems Tour 2019 Melbourne
Monique O’Rafferty
On Sunday 17 November, Sydney alt-rock band Middle Kids returned to The Forum for the Melbourne leg of their New Songs For Old Problems Tour.
And boy was I blown away.
Music Music ReviewsAlex Cameron—‘Miami Memory’ Album Review
Will Minack
On Miami Memory—an intimate portrayal of a modern-day relationship—Alex Cameron sheds his skin. He empties out the wardrobe of elaborate costumes he spent years crafting across his first two albums. In place of these characters, Cameron steps into the spotlight as himself, showcasing a skilled ability to write songs with naked sincerity.
Music Music ReviewsThe Grogans ‘Just What You Want’—Album Review In Brief
Ian Cranfield
In early October, Melbourne surf-Rock band The Grogans released their debut album Just What You Want. It’s the album you didn’t know you needed.
Music Music ReviewsAngel Olsen’s Lesson in Knowing Yourself—‘All Mirrors’ Album Review
Tiia Kelly
Although Olsen’s record takes place in the aftermath of a breakup, it resists the typical conventions of a ‘breakup album’. Here, the past is not a source of pain, but a catalyst for reflection. The album does not mourn, so much as it makes peace.
Music Music ReviewsReview—Troye Sivan, The Bloom Tour 2019 Melbourne
Monique O’Rafferty
There is nothing like seeing an artist perform live in their hometown, and pop-icon Troye Sivan was no exception. On Wednesday 25 September, Troye performed a sold-out show to 7,000 adoring fans at Margaret Court Arena. And boy did he blow us all away!
Only one song into his set, Troye was already pulling out his signature dance moves: hip thrusts, body rolls and slut drops! The arena felt like such a safe space to be unapologetically yourself and really let loose.
Music Music ReviewsReview—Doja Cat at Listen Out 2019
Alana Bolger
“Shout out to all the big butts, the small ones, the medium ones” shouts Doja to the crowd.
Doja is aware of her presence – she knows what she’s doing and isn’t afraid to sell it. She clearly doesn’t let any ideas of what a rapper ‘should’ be – or what a ‘female rapper’ should be – dictate any aspect of her image or output.
Music Music ReviewsAnother Romantic Sadboi Soundtrack—Surf Curse’s ‘Heaven Surrounds You’ Album Review
Ian Cranfield
Two years after their sophomore release, Nothing Yet, Surf Curse have yet again created another soundtrack for sad boys and girls.
This “coming of age epic” features track titles inspired by cult films they’ve cherished throughout their young adult lives.
Music Music ReviewsReview—LANY World Tour 2019 Melbourne
Monique O’Rafferty
When I first saw that LANY was bringing their World Tour to Margaret Court Arena on July 19, I wasn’t really sure whether I wanted to buy tickets.
Was I really prepared to be moshing amongst a sea of children, covered in the superfluid of teens—a mix of sweat, tears and cheap vodka smuggled into the area in yoghurt pouches?