Album Reviews
The Foo Fighters ascent from Dave Grohl’s one-man-band to the biggest arena rock band of their time is the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll legend. Certified modern rock gods, Foo Fighters’ career has been built on stadium-sized foundations, powered by anthemic choruses and Grohl’s ‘everyman rock god’ personality. From ‘Everlong’ to ‘Monkey Wrench’ to ‘Generator’ […]
Before discussing Holy Ground, the 5th album of all-star rock outfit The Dead Daises, let’s consider the state of rock in 2021. Rock is Alive if ( ! ezoic_test() ) { PB = PB || {}; PB.gptStandAlone = PB.gptStandAlone || {}; PB.gptAutoRefresh = PB.gptAutoRefresh || {‘gptAds’:[], ‘gptStandAlone’:[]}; admiralCookie = null; if (typeof readAdmiralCookie === “function”){ […]
The Melbourne hip hop superstar Illy (Alasdair Murray) was compelled to further delay his long-awaited sixth album, The Space Between, due to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, Illy kept us entertained through 2020. He revived his Friday Flips series, even personalising Dua Lipa’s ‘Don’t Start Now’. PB = PB || {}; PB.gptStandAlone = […]
In 2020, the male domination of US hip-hop has finally been crushed. Cardi B blew up with ‘WAP’ (alongside Megan Thee Stallion), Megan consolidated her status as a cultural phenom, and even Doja Cat has fulfilled her pop destiny. But the year’s female takeover isn’t over, with Rico Nasty (aka Maria Kelly) launching her long-promised […]
The opening moments of Miley Cyrus’ new album, Plastic Hearts, is nothing but crunchy, throbbing guitar. It’s the sound of having a beer with a friend in a smoky dive bar. It’s the slight, jarring buzz of a flickering neon light. It’s the sound of one of the world’s biggest pop acts – used to […]
When you become a staple of pop culture, a touchstone for an entire nation’s modern music history, it can be hard to keep up with your own perception. There’s pressure to innovate, to surprise, to keep raising the bar. AC/DC – objectively one of the most successful musical Australian ex-pats of all time – took […]
“I feel like anything could happen”. That’s the line that opens up Kylie Minogue’s fifteenth studio album, DISCO. On paper, it’s a loaded lyric, isn’t it? Humanity’s inability to predict the future, try as we might, has consistently drawn us back. It keeps us paranoid, on edge, afraid. The only true constant in our lives […]
Quite simply, never has the world needed a new Ball Park Music album more than in 2020. The Brisbane outfit’s style of indie rock has transformed somewhat over the last decade, with raw belters giving way to a string of more polished, but no less adventurous tunes. PB = PB || {}; PB.gptStandAlone = PB.gptStandAlone […]
Troye Sivan has channelled his quarantine blues into six lush electro-pop bops on his latest EP In A Dream. It tackles heartbreak, questions of self-worth and the chaos of 2020 in under 20 minutes. Although the majority of the record was written pre-pandemic, it’s easy to interpret the songs through COVID-coloured glasses. Sivan had recorded […]
Orville Peck – the mysterious masked cowboy singer – has beguiled listeners with his queer, romantic take on Johnny Cash’s outlaw country music. He also channels Elvis Presley’s swoony rockabilly, Roy Orbison’s crooned psychedelia and kd lang’s cowpunk cabaret. But Peck sings openly of same-sex unions – desire, heartache and loneliness. There’s been fervent speculation […]
