Singles In Your Area: w/c May 19
Spacey Jane, The Lemonheads and Wolf Alice drop great new videos this week, while a trio of soundtrack cuts keep the pop flowing
A few brand new tracks I was listening to while wondering if Amyl & The Sniffers’ Amy Taylor made the jandal bikini, or if its available somewhere off the shelf …
AUDREY HOBERT - "Sue Me"
Hot 40 Singles: #13
Throwback pop from New York singer Audrey Hobert, bestie of Gracie Abrams and daughter of a producer on Scrubs; its giving Caroline Polachek if she was produced by whoever did Taylor Swift’s Red.
BLAKE - "Ransom"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #08
Queenstown-raised pop singer Blake found success in the UK with drum’n’bass before turning her attention to alt-pop, which gives this song a compositional edge, the parts moving along briskly and the odd ‘drop’ (inasmuch as you can have a ‘drop’ in an alt-pop track). Good song!
CALVIN HARRIS & CLEMENTINE DOUGLAS - "Blessings"
Hot 40 Singles: #07
Look, I’ll say this: this is the best song from Harris’ recent string of ‘I don’t care if its 2025, I’m making the same shit I did in 2014’ singles.
CHAOS IN THE CBD AND ISAAC AESILI - "A Deeper Life"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #05
Kiwi producers Louis and Ben Helliker-Hales have been plying their trade in the UK for a decade and are only just now getting around to their debut album - this is the title track and its a goodie. Laid back dub/electro with a distinctly Kiwi vibe, and it is a winning formula.
It seems Charli has ‘making a video for a song from an old album’ clout these days, in the wake of mega-hit Brat. This song - a cut from brilliant 2020 album How I’m Feeling Now - is the perfect cap on the Brat Summer phenomenon.
DEVILSKIN - "Half-Life Of Dreams"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #03
Hot 40 Singles: #37
Okay, the intro sounds distinctly Incubus circa 1999, but once you get to the vocal it becomes a solid heavy rock track: the instrumentation isn’t breaking any new ground for the group but Jennie Skulander impresses, as usual.
HALSEY, EVANESCENCE AND AMY LEE - "Hand That Feeds"
Hot 40 Singles: #34
One of three soundtrack cuts this week (see also: Rihanna, Rosé), this one comes from the new John Wick spin-off Ballerina, and boasts two of the better pop-rock voices around - it evokes Halsey’s work with Nine Inch Nails on If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power but its production isn’t close to the same level.
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD - "Grow Wings and Fly"
Another weird video to accompany an utterly surprising track from the Aussie prog-rock group - fairly standard drums, bass and guitar with an underswell of orchestration, violins and woodwinds occasionally moving to the foreground.
MORGAN WALLEN - "Superman"
Hot 40 Singles: #06
Oddly enough, not taken from the soundtrack to Superman. ‘One day you’re gonna see my mugshot from a night when I got a little too drunk,’ Wallen muses in a track about his relationship with alcohol, comparing it to Superman and kryptonite. I can’t tell if that comparison is egotistic or just lazy.
PETEY USA - "As Two People Drift Apart"
Peter Martin managed to turn a viral following on TikTok into a music career, releasing a pair of electropop albums with a distinctive country vocal; this song starts out fairly chill before the vocal soars in the chorus. Interesting track.
RiRi’s first single since a contribution to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack in 2022 (which was gorgeous), this one accompanies the upcoming Smurfs movie and has a distinctly rave vibe. Fun fact: Rihanna only sings 27 unique words in various configurations. Money for jam, I tell you.
RIIKI REID - "Indulgent (Fruit)"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #10
Wellington singer Riiki Reid continues her hot streak on the charts with an alt-pop that leverages her vocal and a clangy piano line into a toe-tapper. Good song.
ROSÉ - "Messy"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #01
Hot 40 Singles: #05
Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #05
Arguably the biggest pop star to hail from New Zealand at the moment - at least until Lorde drops her next album - Rosé has landed herself on the soundtrack for F1, a movie which was allegedly one of the most expensive ever made. Its odd to try and review a soundtrack cut since they serve a different purpose than most singles, but this track isn’t too bad under the circumstances.
ROYEL OTIS - "moody"
Hot 40 Singles: #20
A mash-up of the first names of the duo behind the song - Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic - this one comes to us from a Sydney duo who released their debut full length last year. Its a funky alternative track with a great guitar line.
SHANE WALKER - "Mama"
Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles: #02
Hot 40 Singles: #14
Official Top 20 Aotearoa Singles: #14
Singles In Your Area favourite Shane Walker is back with a sweet-hearted ode to his mum, showing a vocal range and dexterity we haven’t heard in any of his previous singles, over a typically funky reggae-pop instrumental.
SPACEY JANE - "Whateverrrr"
Hot 40 Singles: #12
Aussie rockers Spacey Jane released their third album If That Makes Sense a couple of weeks back (and they play Auckland and Christchurch weekend after next). This is the fourth single from that record, and it’s my favourite so far, chilled out rock that feels like its barely being contained and may explode.
THE BLACK KEYS - "No Rain, No Flowers"
I stopped enjoying The Black Keys back around the time of “Lonely Boy” and the album El Camino; I don’t even know what happened, they just stopped sparking joy so I Marie Kondo’d them. “No Rain, No Flowers” is the first cut from their upcoming album and it did not move me in any way.
THE LEMONHEADS - "Deep End (ft J Mascis, Juliana Hatfield)"
Did anyone have ‘new Lemonheads music’ on their 2025 bingo card?! This is a solid track - grungy as ever, with Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis handing in a guitar solo, and frequent collaborator Juliana Hatfield joining Evan Dando on vocals. The new album Love Chant arrives in October; I can’t wait.
TYLA - "Bliss"
Hot 40 Singles: #18
Tyla is maybe one of the most under-rated stars out there right now and “Bliss” shows why - distinctive beats and a stellar vocal. Great song.
Wavves’ ninth album comes out in early June and - based on the singles - it seems like it’ll be fairly standard fare for the group. “Spun” is a fun, grungy track with a wall of guitar leading to an ascendant chorus.
WOLF ALICE - "Bloom Baby Bloom"
By the time The Clearing lands in August, it will have been more than four years since the brilliant Blue Weekend, and that feels entirely too long. “Bloom” finds the group embracing a pop feel to go with proggy instrumental bursts, and an utterly surprising Fame inspired video.
Also new this week:
PinkPantheress:
"Girl Like Me" Hot 40 Singles: #19
"Illegal" Hot 40 Singles: #11
A pair of tracks from PinkPantheress’ Fancy That mixtapem, which I’m going to get to later in the week when I catch up on my album reviews. (Sorry.)
Sleep Token:
"Dangerous" Hot 40 Singles: #03
"Even In Arcadia" Hot 40 Singles: #01
"Look To Windward" Hot 40 Singles: #02
"Past Self" Hot 40 Singles: #04
Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia landed atop the album chart here in NZ (and in Australia, the UK and the USA) which is how these tracks ended up in the top four spots of the Hot chart. I have thoughts on Even In Arcadia and I’ll get to those later in the week when I catch up on album reviews. (Again, sorry.)
Oh, one more thing:
A couple of fun videos to cap things off: Aussie punks Amyl & The Sniffers performed “Tiny Bikini” on Fallon last week and it was as chaotic and unhinged as you’d expect; and Beth Gibbons played a handful of tracks from last year’s Lives Outgrown on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. 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.
It’s been a chaotic couple of weeks and I’ve fallen behind on album reviews, but I am planning to catch up this week.
See you later in the week!
Chris xo
Lemonheads track is great. They were always best with Juliana Hatfield.
Thank you! I came across the single 'Bite Back' by Vana in Dave Moore's overseas pop round up purporting to be from NZ, it's Poppy-like trap metal, done rather well, which might be your cup of tea and in any case is the first thing of its kind I've heard from these shores.