STACK #241 November 2024

MUSIC FEATURE

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack WHAT’S OUT Whether it’s a voyage of musical discovery or a sonic reacquaintance with a favourite band or artist, check out these fresh releases heading to JB this month.

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE Original Motion Picture Soundtrack WATERTOWER RECORDS/ROCKET

FATHER JOHN MISTY Mahashmashana INERTIA

GWEN STEFANI Bouquet UNIVERSAL

EDITOR’S PICK KING STINGRAY For the Dreams COOKING VINYL/SONY It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for King Stingray since they released their self-titled debut. That album hit the Top 10, and the band won the ‘Michael Gudinski Breakthrough Artist’ award at the ARIAs, released a cover of Down Under , and collaborated with Bluey. Now for the “difficult second album”. And the band from Northeast Arnhem Land have delivered big time, with a record that they rightly describe as “a joyous celebration of life and the planet”. As guitarist Roy Kellaway points out, “We are a band from a small place and we’re singing about big things.”

Dan Sultan is a big fan. “Father John Misty ringing in my ears,” Sultan sang on a recent single. The sixth studio

She’s wearing a cowboy hat on the cover, and the record includes a duet with her hubby, country star Blake Shelton, but

It took 36 years for the Beetlejuice sequel, and the double LP soundtrack is also worth the wait, coming

album for the American indie star (real name Joshua Tillman) opens with the 9:19-minute title track, which was inspired by a Sanskrit word meaning “great cremation ground”.

Gwen Stefani points out that her new album is not a country record. She says it was inspired by the ’70s pop-rock radio gems she heard in the car on the way to church when she was a child.

on “Beetlejuice Splatter” neon green and black marble vinyl. Danny Elfman, who did the original score, is back, and the track list is a strange mix of calypso, disco, and ballads, including Richard Marx’s Right Here Waiting , a cover of Day-O, and two versions of MacArthur Park (by Richard Harris, and Donna Summer). BROOKS & DUNN Reboot II SONY later for the Reboot album, which saw them reworking some of their biggest hits. Reboot II follows a similar path, with the duo collaborating with fellow country artists Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll, and Megan Moroney, as well as rock band Halestorm. DWIGHT YOAKAM Brighter Days VIA RECORDS/ROCKET Dwight Yoakam’s first album of original material in nine years was preceded by a collaboration with Post Malone – I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom) . But Yoakam hasn’t changed his classic country sound. And he remains one of the genre’s coolest characters. American country duo Brooks & Dunn – Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn – split in 2009, but reunited a decade

GILLIAN WELCH & DAVID RAWLINGS Woodland INERTIA

LINKIN PARK From Zero INERTIA

From Zero is Linkin Park’s first album since the tragic death of singer Chester Bennington in 2017. Mike Shinoda and new addition, Dead Sara singer Emily Armstrong, have stepped up to assume lead vocal duties, while the album also showcases new drummer Colin Brittain. The female vocal adds a potent dynamic to the band’s classic nu metal sound.

The second album credited to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings readies fans for their upcoming

Australian tour. The album title comes from the couple’s Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, which was destroyed by a tornado in 2020. They say the record is “a swirl of contradictions, emptiness, fullness, joy, grief, destruction, permanence.” GLADIATOR II Soundtrack DECCA/ UNIVERSAL Fun fact: Nick Cave wrote a script for a Gladiator sequel, but Russell Crowe didn’t like it and the project was shelved. It would have been fascinating

MICHAEL KIWANUKA Small Changes UNIVERSAL English soul star

Michael Kiwanuka is searching for his breakout record in Australia with his fourth

album, his first in five years. He’s had three Top 5 albums in the UK – including the 2016 chart-topper Love & Hate – but he hasn’t risen above number 35 locally with his smooth grooves.

to have heard Cave’s Gladiator soundtrack. But the movie and

soundtrack have now arrived – without Cave and Crowe. The powerful score has been driven by Hans Zimmer’s old assistant Harry Gregson-Williams.

86 NOVEMBER 2024

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