Singles In Your Area: w/c Jun 9
Sabrina Carpenter, Cate Le Bon, Blindspott and more release new tracks, while Talking Heads finally release a video for "Psycho Killer"
A few songs I was checking out while trying to find where to get one of those supermarket trolley motorbikes from the new Sabrina vid …
BALU BRIGADA - "Backseat"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #02 / Hot 40 Singles: #19
The Auckland four-piece formed in 2016 are continuing to build toward their debut album while opening for twenty-one pilots in Europe and the UK. This isn’t a great track - fairly straight-forward three-chord structure, almost disaffected vocals - but it makes up for that with a fun hook.
BIG THIEF - "Incomprehensible"
Indie-folk luminaries Big Thief return this year with the follow-up to 2022’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (and, I guess, singer Adrianne Lenker’s solo album Bright Future), due in September. Interestingly, the album was recorded live - all members playing together rather than recording their parts separately - which shows on this first single; I always think live recordings are a bit warmer, have a bit more character.
BLINDSPOTT - "Coming Home"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #06 / Hot 40 Singles: #37
A metal ballad of sorts from Blindspott, who recently dropped the Volume III EP, made up of three songs that will comprise tracks 7 through 9 on album Volumes once everything is released. It doesn’t break new ground, but it does evoke some of their work on second album (and, in my opinion, best album) End The Silence, and singer Damien Alexander sounds better than ever.
CATE LE BON - "Heaven Is No Feeling"
A new single and video from Welsh songstress Cate Le Bon; this one is giving Kate Bush eleganza. I reckon Le Bon is one of the best out there - yet, somehow, I mistakenly thought she was much older than she is, and actually related to Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon. It turns out she is younger than me, and the name ‘Le Bon’ is merely an homage to Simon. Well.
CONAN GRAY - "This Song"
Hot 40 Singles: #08
Gray launched his music career in 2017 off the back of a successful YouTube channel started in 2013. This song is fine, if derivative. More troubling to me is that his Wikipedia page boasts his music has ‘been tagged under the indie, acoustic, and bedroom subgenres’. The Spotification of music is a problem. And ‘bedroom’ is not a fucking genre, its a location.
It isn’t much more than her standard acoustic-lofi fare - but I had to include this one simply because of the name. Also, 26 year old Conan Gray considers 28 year old Dora Jar a key influence on his sound. I’m old.
GIRL IN RED - "Hemingway"
Hot 40 Singles: #14
Norwegian singer-songwriter girl in red (written with no caps; waitm, is this why the kids all say ‘no cap’?!) cites Taylor Swift as an influence, and opened for Swift on her ERAS tour last year, but I think she has an edge that Swift doesn’t have, and a penchant for taking a few risks in her compositions.
HYBRID MINDS - "Heroin (ft Brodie)"
Hot 40 Singles: #15
There is a video for this song. But given it’s a one-shot filmed in a toilet cubicle, I’m not sure if its meant to be an official video. Decide for yourself:
INDIGO DE SOUZA - "Crying Over Nothing"
The more I hear from American-Brazilian singer/songwriter Indigo De Souza, the more interested I am to hear her new album Precipice, out July 25.
INTERPLANETARY CRIMINAL - "Slow Burner (ft Original Koffee)"
Hot 40 Singles: #11
This one is almost a throwback to the Ministry Of Sound house music of the early 2000s that is about a thousand times improved simply by featuring Jamaican singer Original Koffee.
JKING - "Thank You"
Hot 40 Singles: #10
Born and raised in Sydney by parents from the Matautu and Falelatai villages in Samoa, JKING specialises in the kind of hip-hop and R&B mix that made Usher a household name, and he does a solid job of it too. I enjoyed this one.
KAYLEE BELL - "Red Dirt Romeo"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #05 / Hot 40 Singles: #30
New Zealand’s own Carrie Underwood is back with new music after a fairly successful 2024 and the rise of country rock and country pop onto the nation’s mainstream radio playlists. Its a good time to be making country music, I guess.
The last KSI single, “Dirty”, was a surprisingly good, interesting and enjoyable pop/hip-hop crossover track that redeemed his earlier work to some small degree. “Catch Me If You Can” undoes all of that good will behind utterly banal braggadocio and terrible digital effects.
LIL TECCA - "Owa Owa"
Hot 40 Singles: #04
It turns out “OWA OWA” isn’t just a nonsense name, it also forms the basis of a hook - a sample of The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star” - that is so annoying it ruins the song in its entirety, even though the Tec parts are great.
NILÜFER YANYA - "Where To Look"
Not only is Yanya releasing new music this year, she was recently named as the opener for Lorde’s tour in support of her upcoming album Virgin. That might be the best opener-headliner combo for a pop concert in 2025.
OLIVIA DEAN - "Nice To Each Other"
Hot 40 Singles: #06
Neo-soul singer Dean evokes the likes of Lola Young and Rachel Chinouriri on this new single, a light-hearted pop track elevated by Dean’s vocal.
PURITY RING - "Many Lives/Part II"
In addition to making the best remix on Deftones’ White Pony remix album (they took on “Knife Prty”), Purity Ring introduced me to the sub-genre ‘witch house’ and I will always be grateful for that. What is witch house? I have no idea. But I like Purity Ring, so I think this might be it.
SABRINA CARPENTER - "Manchild"
Carpenter continues to embrace her crossover country-pop appeal while inserting her own sense of humour into the lyrics, and “Manchild” is all the better for it. The video is wild as well; take a look.
SACHI - "Holding Your Hand (ft Poppy Baskcomb)"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #03 / Hot 40 Singles: #24
Kiwi electronic duo Sachi scored a coup by landing Poppy Baskcomb for this dance track - Baskcomb is a big name top-liner, an artist who contributes vocal melody and lyrics to instrumental tracks, having worked with the likes of Tiesto, Joel Corry and more. Its an interesting line of work, top-lining, and one that is getting a bit more common in the current state of music.
SAMMY VIRJI & SKEPTA - "Cops & Robbers"
Hot 40 Singles: #07
Another solid garage track from Virji, with a great vocal from grime legend Skepta, a former member of Roll Deep who went solo in 2007. Great track.
TATE MCRAE - "Just Keep Watching"
Official Top 40 Singles: #05 / Hot 40 Singles: #01
The F1 tie-in music video streak continues - and I feel like every time I see Tate McRae in a music video, she is wearing even less clothing and appears to have worked a full day on a construction site.
WATER FROM YOUR EYES - "Life Signs"
Energetic duo Water From Your Eyes are one of those acts that seem constantly on the verge of breaking into the mainstream; “Life Signs” is a bit odder than their usual fare but no less enjoyable, with Nate Amos guitar work especially worthy of mention.
Another good track from Wet Leg in the build-up to second album Moisturiser; I think the songs we’ve heard so far are better than anything on the debut album, so involving their touring band as full members has been a good move.
XXXTENTACION & JUICEWRLD - "Whoa (Mind In Awe) (Remix)"
Hot 40 Singles: #09
‘FROM THE ESTATE OF XXXTENTACION in collaboration with the 999 Foundation: The jerseys featured in this video honor the legacies of XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD by supporting each of their foundations and helping to realize the dreams of kids in Jamaica.’ It’s an ad. Got it.
YUNGBLUD - "Zombie"
Hot 40 Singles: #13
Florence Pugh stars in the video for “Zombie”, described as a ‘love letter to nurses’, which really just goes to show how Yungblud’s reputation has grown in the wake of his self-titled third album charting world-wide back in 2022. Not a bad track by any means, though the vocal is the highlight.
Also new this week:
Georgia Bradley - "Now Or Never"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #10Miley Cyrus - "Easy Lover "
Hot 40 Singles: #05Check out my review of the new Miley album on Friday!
Oh, one more thing:
Seemingly out of nowhere (though at the end of a pitch process that was eventually won by 20th Century Women director Mike Mills; ‘Fuck, what if I don’t get this? I love this band so much. I adore them. I should do this, but I could so easily not get it,’ said Mills), Saoirse Ronan stars in a music video for the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”, which celebrates its 50th birthday as a song this year; it was first performed by the band in 1975. The video is a lot of fun, and a bit odd, with the mundanity of life featuring as the primary psycho.
Also, Turnstile celebrated the release of new album Never Enough - which I’m reviewing Friday - with a performance on Fallon. Enjoy!
SONGS SOURCED FROM:
| Official Top 40 Singles | Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles |
| Hot 40 Singles | Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles | Radioscope 100 |
| r/Indieheads | TheNeedleDrop | Pitchfork |
Thanks for reading, e te whanau.
See you later in the week!
Chris xo
The OG witchhouse act is SALEM with 'King Night' in 2010. It's a majestic synth-based style evolved from horror soundtracks like John Carpenter's work and e.g. the Nightmare on Elm Street 5 theme (and similar effects perhaps derived from older soundtracks heard on degraded celluloid, plus the earlier coldwave genre), plus trap beats. The sound had spread enough by 2012 that it features in a pop version on the first track of Farrah Abraham's My Teenage Dream Ended (everyone needs to hear this btw). The SALEM documentary, Mid West Side Story, is a twisted trip.
I don't know how much this applies to Purity Ring, they sound nothing like SALEM (the second wave hyperpop take on witch house, perhaps?), but I like 'Many Lives/Pt II' a lot, sounds like a keeper, many thanks for the introduction.
Canada is great at this stuff BTW - Alice Glass, Elita, Alexis Munroe, The Birthday Massacre.