Can’t Catch Me Now
by Olivia Rodrigo
The pop it-girl has taken on a rite of passage previously paved by her self-proclaimed faves Taylor Swift and Lorde. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes - the prequel to the film trilogy you couldn’t escape 10 years ago – hits cinemas this weekend and, as with its predecessors, comes with an equally dark, haunting single. Can’t Catch Me Now is eerie, folky and speaks to the relentless sets of rebellions that fight for freedom throughout the franchise. Rodrigo’s emotional vocals brings the folky theme up to a cinematic enough level for a dystopian action flick. –Alana Rae
Kicking up Daisies
by Yumi Zouma
The Christchurch alt-pop band Yumi Zouma have released their third single off a yet to be fully revealed new EP. It’s a lyrically sombre but danceable track, probably due to its fun, thoughtful pacing. The piano riff opening that picks up each chorus also drives it along. Bandmate Josh Burgess made the song’s lyric video with a comedically ancient iPhone 4 in a nod to a certain lyric, and as an Instagram follower fan pointed out under the band’s post, “the song and video both hit you in the feels, whether you’re watching it on a Dell laptop, Samsung Android or a Zune.” – Alana Rae
Wall of Eyes
by The Smile
The second single for the forthcoming second album by the Radiohead off-shoot that can can sound a lot like Radiohead with a change of medication. It’s a hazy psychedelic number that builds with its ukulele-sized beginnings into quite a sonic kaleidoscope. Nice video by Paul Thomas Anderson too. – Russell Baillie
Juvenile Retention
by Gut Health
The name of this fledgling Melbourne art-punk band has, of course, appeared on a few Listener covers in recent years pointing to important stories about out digestive systems. But while we’d like to make a joke that we only included them here to increase casual readership, they are actually a herky-jerky wiry catchy delight, helped by singer Athina Uh Oh’s way with a yelping vocal that takes us old folks back to our New Wave days. – Russell Baillie
You’re No Good
By Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow
From Dolly’s new Rock Star album which has 30 tracks of many duets and karaoke tag-teams on which Dolly sounds like a visiting fairy godmother presence when she’s singing Let It Be with the two surviving Beatles or converting Stairway to Heaven into God-fearing Christian gospel-rock with the help of Lizzo. You’re no Good proves that the album works best when Parton is trading lines with folks nearer her vintage and musical post code like she does here on the song best known as the Linda Ronstadt hit. Ditto What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You with Stevie Nicks or Tried to Rock and Roll Me with Melissa Etheridge. Yes there are quite a few songs with the word “rock” in them. The funniest song is possibly Heart of Glass with Debbie Harry. It’s the blondest release of the week. Or any week really. – Russell Baillie
Don’t Bring me Down
By Juliana Hatfield
Following her cover albums of Olivia Newton John and the Police, 1990s American indie veteran Juliana Hatfield has turned her magpie tendences to the music she loved as a kid to the catalogue of the Electric Light Orchestra. It walks fine line between bar-band bash and valiant attempt to replicate Jeff Lynne’s original mega-production. Even more fun, if like me you’ve thought the incomprehensible word that Lynne repeatedly punctuated his chorus line was “Bruce”. By the sounds of it, Hatfield seems to think so too. Bruce, you have been warned. – Russell Baillie
Don’t Hold Your Breath
By Dave Dobbyn
Dave Dobbyn’s 1993 Lament for the Numb album went right past a lot of people, despite being recorded in LA with producer Mitchell Froom with musicians including the rhythm section of Elvis Costello’s Attractions. Though it did have a fairly bleak spirit to it – an alternative title might have been The Pessimist after his relatively jolly 1980s. But now the red-haired stepchild of the Dobbyn catalogue is final getting a vinyl debut. Among its best songs is its last track – Dobbyn’s satirical but heartfelt ballad about many of the woes of the world back then. It comes complete with lines where the historical reverb is turned all the way up: “The twelve tribes of Israel got down/ In Gaza for the last time/ By the time they got to the West Bank baby it was Palestine.” – Russell Baillie
Lounge Lizard
by Molly Lewis
Decades ago people would write letters to newspapers asking, “Where did all the whistlers go?” For the first half of the 20th century it was not uncommon to hear people walking down the street whistling, but it fell out of favour. Yet the late Roger Whittaker did it, Bryan Ferry did it on his version of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy and the great but late English music hall performer Ronnie Ronalde (who briefly lived in this country) was famous for his abilities and evocations of birds. And now Molly Lewis who has whistled with Dr Dre, Karen O and Jackson Browne resurrects the art. In advance of her debut album On the Lips and her appearance at The Others Way festival, Lewis — who toured with Neil and Liam Finn in 2018 — releases this slinky tune. Try whistling this. – Graham Reid
Telemann (ed. Grebe), Allegro from Trumpet Concerto in D TWV51:D7.
By Graham Ashton trumpet, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ian Watson conductor.
In honour of the pūteketeke, which – with some US election shenanigans – has been crowned New Zealand’s bird of the century, my song of the week comes from Telemann’s Trumpet Concerto in D. This version of Telemann’s score was edited by Karl Grebe. – Richard Betts
Find the Listener’s Songs of the Week playlist on Spotify.
