With shuddering tremolo guitar twang, the sound of a Western-noir movie set on a remote ranch and the sensual menace sparking between Neilson (pictured above) and Oklahoma producer/retro-rock guest McPherson, this first single from Neilson’s Neon Cowgirl (due July 11) bodes well for an album aimed straight at the heart of Americana country. Not quite Nancy and Lee, but Tami and J.D. sound jess fine. – Graham Reid
Spike Island
by Pulp
Those who have followed Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker’s solo career might think, given 2020’s terrific Beyond the Pale album, that he was doing ok out by himself. But the lanky head prefect of the Britpop era and surviving members of his Sheffield band have reconvened for a new album with Spike Island – the title a reference to an era-defining 1990 concert by the Stone Roses – has Pulp in a sort of Roxy Music mirror ball-period mode. The intriguing video takes photos from the band’s 1995 Different Class album and does intriguing AI things. – Russell Baillie
Share Your Luv
by Fly My Pretties ft Riiki Reid
The band of constantly moving parts signals a new album Elemental (May 16) and tour with this slice of dancefloor soul so aching that vocalist Reid can barely enunciate her lyrics. But we sense a deep unhappiness. Doubtless better live. – Graham Reid
Moving to Melbourne
by Dartz
The punk-adjacent Wellington band are up for best group, rock artist and video at next month’s Aotearoa Music Awards but they’ll be somewhere in Europe on the night. A pity, because as this track and many before it show, they’re a rare Kiwi band among this year’s Tui nominees – one with a sense of humour and mischief. The track is a stupidly catchy ode to joining the, ah, brain drain. – Russell Baillie
The NZ-but-now-spread-around-world dreamy synth-pop quartet return with their first new music since 2023, a caffeinated headrush of a song, its propulsive mood apparently inspired by using public transport systems, like the New York subway, that actually work. The stuff you discover on your big OE. – Russell Baillie
Suddenly
by Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe
It might be a track by two absolute boffins, a tune that is a taster for two forthcoming collaborative albums by veteran rock egghead Eno and conceptual artist Wolfe. But it’s an actual song, a combo of simple waltz strum, shimmering atmosphere and direct lyric, that might all remind some of Chris Knox’s Not Given Lightly. Pretty video too. – Russell Baillie
Buzz
by Danica Bryant
Wellington’s Bryant offers a slinky narrative about clubbing, drinking with friends and overt sexual flirting leading to the surging “the harder we hit, the harder they fall and by the end of the night we won’t care at all”. And then a weary wind-down into “anything to escape how we felt today”. Hedonism and freedom come with a price. Third single on the way to her debut album Feast due August. Check her earlier indie-rock Acid single also. Could be a very adventurous album. – Graham Reid
No No Yes Yes
by Deradoorian
Retro, minimalist electropop from LA experimentalist (formerly of Dirty Projectors) who here walks in the footsteps of Yoko Ono, Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Blondie with an ear on Grace Jones and dub. Lyrically she just deals in opposites (life/death, no/yes) which have little weight, so it’ll be interesting to see if the forthcoming album Ready for Heaven (May 9) really does deal with watching humanity erode, mental struggle and is anti-capitalist. That’s a big ask, even from someone described as an art-pop auteur. – Graham Reid
The story, almost certainly apocryphal, goes like this. Allegri’s Miserere was composed for choristers to sing at the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week. The manuscript remained closely guarded, and the music not allowed to leave the Vatican on pain of excommunication. This prohibition was of little interest to a 14-year-old boy, who having heard this divine piece of music went home and wrote the whole thing out from memory. The boy was Mozart, and he’s the reason Allegri’s Miserere came to be performed all over the world every Easter. – Richard Betts
