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 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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Julien Baker has always been an artist that makes you stop, notice and absorb her talents. Now onto her third album, Baker is as prolifically complete on Little Oblivions as she’s ever been since releasing debut album Sprained Ankle half a decade ago. There’s very little, if any, façade to what pours out in her…
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After a few years between drinks, Tash Sultana is back in 2021 with Terra Firma, the follow up to their much acclaimed and lauded album Flow State. Much like its 2018 predecessor, Terra Firma is an exploration into the soulful and trip driven escapades of Sultana’s mind and musical expertise. With all the groove driven sounds…
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Google defines tenuous as “very weak or slight; insubstantial”. While this could very well be a text book definition of my physique, there’s nothing tenuous about my next claim: Luca Brasi has absolutely crushed their new album, Everything is Tenuous. Returning with their fifth LP, the Tasmanian legends have managed to kick things up a…
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Australia has always been a keen exporter to foreign markets. From traditional resources like coal, wool and copper, to the non-traditional, like Paul Hogan and wine. But, one thing that Australia’s always been pretty consistent in exporting is quality music. Currently, one of Australia’s biggest exports globally is our psychedelic rock scene. Having gradually risen…
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There will always be a place in the musical world for thought provoking rhythm, blues and jazz. The general downbeat nature of the style allows for introspective and reflective songs to reach the masses; and allow any listener to relate to the music irrespective of their preferred taste. For Arlo Parks, she welcomes all music…
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After the absolute shitstorm of 2020, you’d have thought 2021 would hopefully deliver some sort of reprieve. After losing pretty much every avenue of income last year, English band Shame pinned all their hopes on 2021 being the year they could thrive, via touring their new album Drunk Tank Pink. Slaving away through last year…
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the AU review is proud to announce The 40 Best Albums of 2020, from Australia and around the world. Who will top our 12th annual list? Read on to find out, and enjoy streams of the records as you scroll through. 40. San Cisco – Between You & Me After more than a decade together, San…
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It was always going to be hard for The Avalanches to follow up their debut Since I Left You. At the time of its release, it was groundbreaking and re-wrote the way in which music could and would be created. It may have taken them sixteen years to follow it up, but 2016’s Wildflower went…
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YUNGBLUD has been pretty busy since realising his debut album in 2018. With a slew of features and collaborations in the two years since, he’s been pushing the limits on what sound he’s creating and who, as a result, may want to listen to his music. Following a tender single with Halsey in 2019, he’s…
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Musicians like Clio Renner are what makes the musical landscape go round and round. For every act you know as a near household name, there’s those musicians working in the periphery, as touring or session musicians helping create those songs you’ll play on repeat and love year in, year out. And if you’re lucky enough,…
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Tim Minchin‘s story is one of many failures and victories. Seemingly as stop as it was start, Minchin is now one of the most recognisable Australian artists anywhere in the world. It may have been a slow burn for him, but ever so slowly and surely the West Australian has managed to cultivate a persona…
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Few artists worldwide have had as large and impressionable a past two years as BENEE. On the back of a string of hit singles strewn across two simply fantastic EPs, BENEE has seemingly been able to write songs with monster pop hooks, all whilst delivering them with a sweet level of melancholy and sincerity. Here…
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Egoism, the classy two piece from Sydney’s Inner West, return in 2020 with their killer second EP; the floating and completely lovely On Our Minds. Having taken the time to deliver their follow up to 2017’s It’s Wearing Off, On Our Minds is a massive step forward for the duo who’ve seemingly found not only…
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After seemingly coming out of nowhere in 2018 with her absolutely fantastic debut album Thick Skin, Tia Gostelow returns in 2020 with an evolved and 80s inspired sound, and the marvellous new album Chrysalis. Where her debut album was filled with understated and downbeat melody, Chrysalis is full, for the most part, of upbeat groovers that…
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There’s a strange level of satisfaction reviewing a new album for such a universally loved band like Ball Park Music. It’s like listening to the news that your best friends are getting married, that you’re going to become a parent for the first time or that the coronavirus has been eradicated. It’s pure, unadulterated excitement,…
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For many people, their music tastes come about in one of two ways: through friends and lived experiences or through their parents and siblings. More recently you could even add the internet to that list. For me, the majority of my musical taste came directly from my dad and brother, while being part of the…
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In a time and place like 2020, I’m sure I’m not the only person who not only craves for things to go back to some semblance of normality and homogeneity, but also tries to simultaneously avoid the monotonous nature and constant groundhog days we’ve collectively experienced for the past six months. There’s a fine line…
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When I first put on the pre-stream of Midnight Manor, the second album from The Nude Party, I’d just got home from a long day back in the office after seemingly having never left my house for the last six months. Just as I wondered what I was going to cook for dinner having forgotten…
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Ever seen a band post about current affairs on their socials, and then read comments where morons say something to the effect of “stick to music”? There’s a very good chance you have. IDLES are the type of band that this would occur to regularly. They’ve built a platform on their anti-establishment themes, lyrics, persona and…
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Brash, energetic and full of their own confidence, A. Swayze & the Ghosts are ready to take the guitar rock world by storm – one three minute song at a time. Straight out of the Apple Isle, the four piece debut here with the blistering Paid Salvation and aim to mark their place on the music landscape….
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Everything Everything has always been a band that treads the fine line between grandiose displays of eccentric rock ready for heaving festival crowds, and smart, reclusive, ballad inspired classics fit for a small sweaty room filled with wine and scotch drinks. Being able to seamlessly meander across this spectrum of sound has enabled the Manchester…
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After more than a decade together, San Cisco (Jordi Davieson on vocals and guitar, Scarlett Stevens on drums, and Josh Biondillo on guitar) are now at a point where they know what they are capable of making and very comfortable in doing so. After albums two and three (Gracetown and The Water) left things a…
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It’s been a few years between drinks for Washington. After absolutely smashing it in 2010 with her debut album, I Believe You Liar, Washington took a few years to put together the follow up, 2014’s There, There. Across those two albums, Washington proved just how good she is at what she does. With her jazz…
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Who said science and the arts can’t go hand-in-hand? At a time where everyone is being told that STEM is more important than the arts, it’s the Venn diagrams like Alex The Astronaut that help put everything into perspective. Equal parts scientist and musician, Alex The Astronaut has taken a few years to put to…
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It’s hard to place Johnny Hunter, the four piece from Sydney’s Inner West. With a slew of singles already released, their sound changes from dirty and heavy, to anthemic and poetic; from unruly and messy to clean cut and hopeful. One thing that is easier to work out is that Johnny Hunter are a band…
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After teaching us how to be a human being in 2016, Glass Animals have been forced to adapt to a world in 2020 they definitely wouldn’t have even considered four years ago. Following the life-altering injuries sustained to drummer Joe Seaward, the band put plans for album number three on the back burner allowing Seaward…
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If you told me back in 2014 when E^ST released her first single that it would be another six years before we heard a full album from her, I’d have definitely tried to call your bluff. It feels like E^ST has been around much longer than someone who’s only now releasing their debut album. After…
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I have a vivid memory of a friend messaging me one day asking if I knew who Lime Cordiale were. This was in about 2014 when we were both getting into using Twitter. I was using it on the back of a Uni assignment, and he was using it to follow the NBA. Anyway, my…
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