Buffalo Soldier
By Bob Marley and the Wailers with Stonebwoy from the album Africa Unite
Brother Bob’s hits and deep cuts are repurposed by African artists on the new album Africa Unite, here award-winning Ghanaian dancehall-pop star updating Marley’s posthumous hit with current political concerns in Africa about economic colonisation and war. A seamless bridge between history and today’s headlines.
Back in Love
By Leisure from their forthcoming album Leisurevision
Definite winner of this week’s prize for soft-porn saxophone solo is contained within this squiffy slice of pop-funk from the perpetually cruisy crew of Auckland producer blokes who have a new album and tour in the coming months. The lyrics might feel a bit ChatGPT, but it’s got a very nice lights-down last-dance-of-the-evening vibe thing and it could do very well in any international boy band song auction.
How Would That Feel
By Christina Chong from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Subspace Rhapsody
Yes, the latest episode of the best Star Trek series in many a light-year (now on TVNZ+) was a musical one and there’s an album to go with it. It seems the USS Enterprise scanning a subspace phenomenon with a music signal sparked a space-time anomaly, turning the crew into a chorus line. There are precedents – the original Captain Kirk, William Shatner, and original Mr Spock, Leonard Nimoy, released albums in their heyday, though out of character. The ensemble songs suggest the ship is in low orbit around the planet Hamilton, but this solo number of Christina Chong, who plays the ship’s conflicted security chief, is the Let It Go of the piece. Broadway? Beam us down.
Alternate Ways to Pray
By Violet Hirst Brought up in Queenstown, the now Tāmaki-based singer-songwriter Violet Hirst has just delivered a debut album with a title suggesting an Irish touch to her music. But what’s more evident is Hirst’s assured approach to her theatrical indie folk that might sit nicely in Julia Jacklin or Angel Olsen territory. The album was recorded in rustic settings in Cromwell. Yes, it’s a pity the title After the Goldrush was already taken. She’s on tour this month, too.
Swim Between the Flags
by Blanco Tranco
Surfie pop-rock is still alive and well, thanks to Melbourne-based Blanco Tranco, a four-piece that taps into classic jangly surf guitar, and counters it, especially in Swim Between the Flags, with some deep, melancholic lyrics crying out for the subject in question to “see someone” about their issues. Angsty but also an absolute bop. The band formed in 2021 seem confident in their sound, making for an assured album that feels like a darker version of the Beths.
Fire of Mercy
By Hot Chip
British synth-pop gets soulful and mature with Malaysian-Irish songwriter and producer Yunè Pinku as they juggle danceable electro-pop with a message about being a jaded adult looking back to the innocence of childhood. Not quite as resonant as William Blake’s Songs of Experience that Chipper Joe Goddard references, but you get the idea. Maturity’s a bit of a drag, innit? But let’s dance.
Romeo
By Amiria Grenell
Shakespeare’s story of doomed and forbidden love never dates — just ask Taylor Swift who, as a teenager, rewrote it in 2008 from Juliet’s perspective for Love Story on her album Fearless. Ōtautahi-based folk singer Grenell looks to alt-country and Southern soul for her version as she conjures up an imaginary lover and a yearning for romance. Be careful what you wish for though, huh?
Kintsugi
By Salina Fisher performed by NZTrio
In this week’s Listener, classical columnist Richard Betts claims that Kintsugi should have won – but didn’t – Salina Fisher her third SOUNZ Contemporary Award for the year’s best classical composition. You can judge for yourself in this performance by NZTrio, who commissioned what is surely Fisher’s most beautiful work.
