Author: Dylan Marshall

James Vincent McMorrow

Album of the Week: James Vincent McMorrow – Grapefruit Season (2021 LP)

I still remember the first time I saw James Vincent McMorrow live. It was the inaugural leg of Falls Festival Byron Bay and it was disgustingly hot. Just days away from releasing his second album, Post Tropical, McMorrow played a mid-afternoon slot and proceeded to crush his set, all the while struggling with the Australian…

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The Vaccines

Album of the Week: The Vaccines – Back in Love City (2021 LP)

Perhaps the hardest band to google and get reliable information on at the moment, The Vaccines are back with their fifth album, Back in Love City, a fun and energised exploration from a band that has always been capable of creating solid, reliable and catchy rock. Coming three years after their fourth album Combat Sports,…

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Gretta Ray

Album of the Week: Gretta Ray – Begin to Look Around (2021 LP)

It honestly feels like Gretta Ray has been releasing music for the past decade. Only now releasing her debut album, Begin to Look Around, the Melbourne artist has been in and around listener’s ears for so long you’d be forgiven for thinking she’d surely be onto album three by now. Taking the time to formulate…

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Holy Holy

Album of the Week: Hello My Beautiful World is Holy Holy’s best album yet

Holy Holy are whole. After years of plying their trade on anthemic stadium-ready rock tinged with hints of 80’s glam guitar and synth, the Australian act now feel complete; like they’ve managed to pull it all together once and for all. Here on Hello My Beautiful World, the anthemic beauty of the band continues to…

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Album of the Week: Now We’re Cookin’ is Polish Club at their best, most melodic and entirely complete

Since coming through with the goods on their debut album in 2017, it’s been a relatively constant burn for Polish Club, the Sydney duo known for their live shows and ability to craft punchy classic rock tracks. With Alright Already debuting 4 years ago only to be followed up with the stellar Iguana in 2019,…

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Eilish Gilligan

Album of the Week: Eilish Gilligan – First One To Leave The Party (2021 EP)

Eilish Gilligan has always been capable of creating synth-driven sad bangers. With this ability more than apparent and present across previous EPs and singles, Gilligan returns with her second EP in the form of five track wonder First One To Leave The Party. Following less than a year since debut EP Hospital, First One To…

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Bleachers

Album of the Week: Bleachers – Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night (2021 LP)

Every few years or so you hear about a magical super-producer that’s seemingly always creating massive tunes for other artists. And every time I’m left wondering if these producers do it because they can’t sing and are just good at lyrics and song structure. I’m sure there have been plenty of producers that are more…

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Leon Bridges

Album of the Week: Leon Bridges – Gold-Diggers Sound (2021 LP)

A musical chameleon of sorts, Leon Bridges is back in 2021 with a new sound that still fully embraces the genuine strength of his vocal, while also leaning into his gradual progression into RnB. Here on Gold-Diggers Sound, Bridges has well and truly done away with the 1960’s soul sound he first burst out with…

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Tone and I

Album of the Week: Tones And I – Welcome to the Madhouse (2021 LP)

The story of Tones And I has been spread wide and far since she broke out in early 2019. A busker first and foremost, noting they’re at their happiest when playing in the street, Tones And I was on a meteoric trajectory ever since her first single landed all across Australian airwaves. It’s not often,…

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Tkay Maidza

Album of the Week: Tkay Maidza – Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3 (2021 EP)

It’s about time Australia and the world stops sleeping on Tkay Maidza. After releasing more than her fair share of quality singles and EPs, Maidza is back with Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3, a slinky and complete progression from an act who’s more than ready to make an impact on the global hip hop…

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5 albums and EPs you may have missed in Q2 2021

As we hit the half way point of 2021, there’s been an extraordinary level of great new music released week in, week out this year; especially in the months April through June. From Wolf Alice to girl in red, London Grammar, EJ Worland and Martha Marlow, the second quarter of 2021 has seen a variety…

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Lucy Dacus

Album of the Week: Lucy Dacus – Home Video (2021 LP)

Drenched in nostalgia and melancholia, Lucy Dacus does sadness at its best and most potent. Now onto her third album, Dacus returns with Home Video, eleven songs that are a deep dive into her coming-of-age years in suburban America. Written mostly from a bibliographical viewpoint, much of Home Video is Dacus exploring her own being,…

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Hayley Mary

Album of the Week: Hayley Mary – The Drip (2021 EP)

Less than 18 months since releasing the exemplary The Piss, The Perfume EP, Hayley Mary has returned with The Drip, a seven-track EP that will continue to assert her place as one of the leading Australian vocalists and musicians. More than a decade since first breaking through as the leader of The Jezabels, Hayley Mary’s…

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Album of the Week: Sly Withers – Gardens (2021 LP)

After ever-so quietly building up a small catalogue of first rate singles, 2020 was set to be the year Sly Withers broke through with their brand of melancholic punk. All their ducks seemingly beginning to align, the capitulation of the world as we know it only proved to be a small speed bump for the…

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Wolf Alice

Album of the Week: Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend (2021 LP)

On the back of the world-beating and completely dominant Visions of a Life, Wolf Alice were always bound to make another great album; we just didn’t know if it was going to be straight away or in a couple of albums time. I’m here to say their new album, Blue Weekend is that next great album….

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Middle Kids

Live Review: Middle Kids + The Lazy Eyes – City Recital Hall, Sydney (28.05.21)

Returning to play a hometown show for the first time since releasing their stellar second album, Middle Kids brought more than their A-game to Sydney’s City Recital Hall as they tore through a career-spanning set and set a new high standard for what you should expect from the band. Opening up the night was The…

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Teenage Joans

Album of the Week: Teenage Joans – Taste of Me (2021 EP)

Surely everyone went through a pop-punk stage during their teens, right? It makes sense though. Growing up through late primary school and early high school listening to whatever your parents listened to or whatever was on the communal house radio (maybe I’m showing my age), your early teens were generally the first time you got…

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Album of the Week: Martha Marlow shines in Medicine Man, tackling confronting and raw themes

In a time like 2021 where disease and virus feels like its just around every possible corner, even for those of us whom are relatively healthy, you some times forget the risks and struggles many others go through to try live their lives without getting more sick. Every day on the news you hear about…

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Babe Rainbow

Album of the Week: Babe Rainbow – Changing Colours (2021 LP)

It’s not uncommon to link a song or artist with a person, place, thing or memory. Music plays a massive role in association throughout your life, whether it be through a good or bad memory and experience. For me, since first hearing Babe Rainbow during their “Secret Enchanted Broccoli Forest” era, every time I hear…

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Rag'n'Bone Man

Album of the Week: Rag’n’Bone Man – Life By Misadventure (2021 LP)

Self-reflection is probably one of the most grounding things someone can do in an attempt to better themselves. Whether it’s stuffing up at work, waking up completely ruined after a big night and wondering where it went wrong, or contemplating a failed relationship, being able to reflect and find those faults allows for quicker fixes,…

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EJ Worland

Live Review: EJ Worland + The Hunnies – Mary’s Underground, Sydney (01.05.21)

Hot on the heals of the release of his debut EP in early April, EJ Worland hit up Mary’s Underground in Sydney on Saturday night to showcase the best of the EP to a keen and loyal home town crowd. With the release of No One Left to Blame still fresh in the mind, and…

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girl in red

Album of the Week: girl in red – if i could make it go quiet (2021 LP)

Every good road trip needs a playlist that tracks the highs and lows of the trip. From those opening hours where excitement reigns, to the middle hours where the enthusiasm ebbs and flows, before picking itself up again just as the trip reaches its culmination. For girl in red, it’s these road trips that helped…

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Album of the Week: Jack Biilmann’s Full Circle is a record of heartfelt reflections on life

The older I get, the more I realise it really doesn’t matter what people think about you and what your hobbies, style or tastes in the things are. Now in my late 20’s, I’ve come very comfortable listening to (and reviewing for that matter) albums and artists younger me wouldn’t have given the time of…

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London Grammar

Album of the Week: London Grammar – Californian Soil (2021 LP)

I vividly remember the first time I saw London Grammar live. It was at Falls Festival Byron Bay in 2013/14 just as the band had exploded on the back of “Strong” and debut album If You Wait. With the sun having just set and vision from the stage obviously limited, frontwoman Hannah Reid politely asked…

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EJ Worland

Album of the Week: EJ Worland’s No One Left To Blame will be one of the best debut EPs of 2021

Ever heard an artist you instantly connected with? Like, from the first time you heard their music you just knew they were red hot? Having grown up in a household where I was force fed your 60s, 70s and 80s classics, I’ve developed a strong appreciation for acts who sound like they don’t belong in…

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5 albums you may have missed in Q1 2021

We’ve been blessed (musically) with a killer opening quarter to 2021, with plenty of stellar and groundbreaking albums and EPs already released, many of which have received our Album of the Week. From Shame to Arlo Parks, Julien Baker, Genesis Owusu and Middle Kids, 2021 has so far seen a variety of albums released that…

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Album of the Week: Ben Howard’s Collections From the Whiteout is a surprising return to form

Ben Howard is seemingly a reluctant, successful musician. His ongoing success and acclaim from fans and critics does not always sitting so well with himself. Instead, he comes across as an artist who is consistently and constantly looking to grow and evolve, all while perhaps being held back by his historical success. Having been a…

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Today We're The Greatest

Album of the Week: Today We’re The Greatest sets up Middle Kids to become one of the country’s best

The last time I wrote anything about Middle Kids I made a not so subtle comparison between the Sydney band and Australian musical royalty Paul Kelly. At the time, they were touring their debut album Lost Friends and had released a little song called “Mistake”, which I’d go on to call the best song of 2018….

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obviously

Album of the Week: Lake Street Dive – Obviously (2021 LP)

There was a study done in the past couple of years that showed the likelihood of you not listening to new music or styles increases exponentially the closer you get to thirty years old, and then going off the chart once you past the milestone. Now, I grew up in a house that mostly played…

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Genesis Owusu

Album of the Week: Genesis Owusu – Smiling With No Teeth (2021 LP)

Genesis Owusu is an artist in control. Taking a few years to get here, his debut album Smiling With No Teeth showcases an artist well and truly ready to breakdown barriers and take the world on, fifteen tracks at a time. A lengthy debut, Smiling With No Teeth is the sign of an artist not…

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