Author: Dylan Marshall

Best Albums 2022

The 20 Best Albums of 2022… so far

With 2022 just past its halfway point, we’re taking a look at some of our favourite albums released over the past six months. 2022 has started off with plenty of quality releases that are sure to remain on repeat as we head into the second half of the year. With the year already off to…

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Album of the Week: Johnny Hunter – Want (2022 LP)

Slowly building their sound over the past 4 years, Sydney lords Johnny Hunter are here with their debut album Want – and it’s everything you could have hoped for from the band. For the uninitiated, Johnny Hunter have been slogging away since emerging from the shadows of Sydney’s grim (read non-exist) nightlife in ’18/’19. They…

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Vivid Live Review: Meg Mac – Sydney Opera House (18.06.22)

Vivid Live returned to Sydney for the first time in three years, giving Meg Mac a chance to return to the stage and successfully close out the festival. Playing her first Sydney show in close to three years, the Melbourne artist was better than she’s ever been and returned to the stage with more confidence,…

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Live Review: Ball Park Music + King Stringray + Teenage Joans + RAT!hammock – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney (17.06.22)

Is there a better way to celebrate your 500th show than with 5000 of your closest friends? I’m here to tell you the answer is no, dear reader. Seven albums in and on the back of their newest album Weirder & Weirder, Ball Park Music returned to Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion and showed the crowd how…

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Album of the Week: Foals’ Life is Yours is a pop laden masterpiece

Almost 15 years since the release of their debut album Antidotes, English legends Foals are back with LP 7, the incredibly dance and groove heavy Life Is Yours and I’m here to tell you it’s a pop laden masterpiece. One of the best bands to ever do it in a studio and on a dance…

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Album of the Week: Ball Park Music – Weirder & Weirder (2022 LP)

You know that TikTok that says something along the lines of ‘things in my x that just make sense’? Well that’s sort of like listening to a Ball Park Music album; everything in it just makes sense. It must be hard being Australia’s loveliest band. Not only do you have to worry about releasing album…

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Album of the Week: Annie Hamilton – the future is here but it feels kinda like the past (2022 LP)

It’s been close to a decade since I first heard of Annie Hamilton. Since her time in Little May, there’s been a gradual smattering of treats from Hamilton as she developed her sound. Having worked and played with a myriad of artists in recent years, including Jack River and The National’s Aaron Dessner, Hamilton has…

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Album of the Week: Mallrat’s Butterfly Blue may just be the pop record of 2022

What feels like a million years in the making, Mallrat‘s debut album is here and it’s ready to win over everyone willing to be won over. Coming six years after her debut EP and a plethora of massive singles, Butterfly Blue has been worth the wait for Mallrat fans and music lovers alike. After slowly…

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The Bands That Made The Beer: Casey’s Brewery

In our new series, we’re taking a dive into local independent breweries and doing our best impression of being a Cicerone, by matching the brewery’s beers with a band. We’ll be taste testing the best a brewery has to offer and teaming tipples with tracks, all to make that drinking experience even more special. This…

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Fontaines D.C.

Album of the Week: Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia (2022 LP)

The third album has always seemingly been the make or break album for a lot of bands. Often garnering some love on the first album after a string of successful EPs and singles, a band might follow up with the fabled sophomore slump or recycle reliable sounds from their first album and release as new…

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Album of the Week: Wet Leg’s self-titled debut well and truly delivers

Wet Leg feels like a band that would have absolutely dominated that teen blog/ tumblr period of 2007-2012. Maybe it’s because I was at the peak of my awkward teen powers in that period, but having listened through the self-titled debut album from The Isle of Wight act a couple of times now, their sound…

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Camp Cope

Album of the Week: Camp Cope – Running with the Hurricane (2022 LP)

Camp Cope recently covered Sam Fender’s track “Seventeen Going Under”. There’s a line in the song that’s gone TikTok viral, but also equally represents the progression of Camp Cope pretty well. ‘That’s the thing with anger/ it begs to stick around’. It’s poignant and pertinent but easily highlights the longevity and mentality of the Melbourne…

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The Bands That Made The Beer: Rusty Penny Brewing

In a brand new series, we’ll be taking a dive into local independent breweries and doing our best impression of being a Cicerone, by matching the brewery’s beers with a band. We’ll be taste testing the best a brewery has to offer and teaming tipples with tracks, all to make that drinking experience even more…

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Darren Hanlon

Album of the Week: Darren Hanlon – Life Tax (2022 LP)

Darren Hanlon is one of this country’s most underrated and best storytellers. That’s a fact. Now more than 20 years in the game, Hanlon is back with Life Tax, a tender and wholesome take on life in 2022 and living simply. Coming almost seven years since his last album, Where Did You Come From?, Hanlon’s…

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22 Artists To Watch in 2022

Now a month and a half into the year, 2022 has started off well with plenty of notable albums and singles released so far both domestically and abroad. But what about those acts that we think are going to burst out and make waves this year? Below we’ve compiled a list of 22 artists that…

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William Crighton

Album of the Week: William Crighton’s Water and Dust cements him as one of Australia’s finest artists

There’s always something fun about artists throwing it back to a time where music was nothing more than stories, vocals, guitar and percussion. Here on his third album, Wiradjuri Country artist William Crighton is all guns blazing as he takes the listener into his mind and experiences with Water and Dust; a vast and sprawling release that…

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Urthboy

Is it time Western Sydney music receives the respect it deserves?

With a population of approximately 6 million people, Sydney is the largest city of Australia. And just like every other city in the country, Sydney has many suburbs, cultures, sub-cultures, communities and milieus that make it culturally and artistically rich. The most important, and often overlooked, is Western Sydney. Always seen as the poorer and…

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Album of the Week: MØ – Motordrome (2022 LP)

Maybe its the accent. Maybe its her ability to release quirky and angular pop tracks that has some of the biggest producers in the world wanting to work with her. Maybe is Maybelline. Whatever it is, MØ has historically been able to hit the mark with her music and live performances. Here on new album…

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Album of the Week: Yard Act – The Overload (2022 LP)

It’s not often a band can claim Elton John as a fan. It’s even less often when they can say that well before they release their debut album. For Yard Act it appears John is a massive fan of their whimsical, offbeat and humourous take on British post-punk. Proclaiming the band as his favourite new…

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The 40 Best Albums of 2021

It’s that time of year when our team of music writers and editors get together to count down the 40 best albums of the year. And while this has been no usual year, the quality of music that has been released has been incredibly high. Suffice it to say, this has been a very difficult…

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Yard Act, Nick Ward and Joy Crookes: UK & Aussie acts you need to know

As the Ashes kick off and the year begins to draw to a close, I thought I’d take a moment to bring your attention to a hat-trick of acts I’ve been introduced to this year; two from England and one here at home in Australia. Yard Act (Leeds, England) Ever wondered what the love child…

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The Teskey Brothers

Album of the Week: The Teskey Brothers – Live at Hamer Hall (2021 LP)

In the two years since releasing their magical debut album, Run Home Slow, The Teskey Brothers have been incredibly busy and become overwhelmingly accomplished. Playing numerous completely sold out tours (despite the live music landscape being in complete disarray), winning awards and accolades left, right and centre, the Melbourne band has still managed to find…

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The Cat Empire

The Cat Empire: As they say goodbye, a fan takes a look back at all the times the band said Hello

After more than 20 years and 8 studio albums, The Cat Empire has decided to call time on a career that has spanned more than 1500 shows having played to millions of fans. Starting out as a trio in 2001, the Melbourne act has managed to light up every single stage they’ve played while bringing…

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Paul Kelly

Album of the Week: Paul Kelly – Christmas Train (2021 LP)

As we enter the silly season and the working year begins to wrap up for some, slowly but surely our playlists begin to change, and before you know it, there’s just as much Christmas music being played as there is any other. As has been the case for more than two decades now, Australia’s own…

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Courtney Barnett

Album of the Week: Courtney Barnett – Things Take Time, Take Time (2021 LP)

I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t really get Courtney Barnett when she first broke out with The Double EP A Sea of Split Peas. At the time, I knew her lyrics were smart and witty, but for the life of me just couldn’t get around the deadpan delivery. It wasn’t until she released…

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Album of the Week: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – The Future (2021 LP)

There’s something you’ve got to love about wholesome, feel good music. Yes, it’s nice to listen to serious musicians making serious and emotive tracks, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing I’d rather listen to to blow out the cobwebs than a classic party tune filled with horns, soulful vocals and an easily…

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The War On Drugs

Album of the Week: The War on Drugs – I Don’t Live Here Anymore (2021 LP)

As far as band names go, The War On Drugs is one of the best. Another thing they do pretty damn well is making fulfilling and assertive stadium rock. Returning more than four years since previous album A Deeper Understanding, The War On Drugs are back with I Don’t Live Here Anymore, a more toned…

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Parquet Courts

Album of the Week: Parquet Courts – Sympathy For Life (2021 LP)

Parquet Courts has always been a band comfortable in their ability to produce songs with no (or limited) frills that always manage to get the job done. From initially breaking out with Light Up Gold in 2012, right through to 2018’s Wide Awake, the New York four piece’s brand of chaotic post-punk garage rock has…

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Baker Boy

Album of the Week: Baker Boy – Gela (2021 LP)

It may have taken him a while, but the Fresh Prince of Arnhem Land has come through with the goods. Since bursting on to the scene in 2017 with “Cloud 9”, Baker Boy has slowly but surely pieced together a debut album that highlights the dance beats he’s become known for, willingness to indulge modern…

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Sam Fender

Album of the Week: Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under (2021 LP)

You know that meme that’s been around for months now that says ‘tell me x without telling me x’? Well for Sam Fender and his second album Seventeen Going Under, that meme could most definitely be used here in the form of ‘tell me you listened to Bruce Springsteen and The Killers heaps while writing…

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