STACK #262 August 2026

FEATURE MUSIC

THIS MONTH?

THE SCRIPT The User’s Guide to Being Human UNIVERSAL

AUSSIE RELEASES

Ireland’s The Script celebrate their 25th anniversary with their eighth studio album, which follows 2024’s Satellites . That record

BIL Y’S PICK

FLEETWOOD MAC Greatest Hits (Deluxe Edition) INERTIA

AIRBOURNE Airbourne INERTIA

DON WALKER Love Songs MGM

dealt with the tragic passing of guitarist Mark Sheehan. This album, explains singer Danny O’Donoghue, finds the band in a more optimistic mood. “You never lose grief,” he says, “you just grow around it... I can start to finally see a little bit of light at the end of the dark.” WEEZER Weezer INERTIA

Airbourne’s Joel O’Keeffe is one of the more extraordinary frontmen in the history of Australian

Paul Kelly calls Don Walker “the Clint

VERA BLUE Modern Rituals UNIVERSAL third on the second season of The Voice . Then she launched her recording career under the name Vera Blue. During the making of her third album, Modern Rituals , she discovered something about herself. “I have come to realise that Celia Pavey and Vera Blue are not separate entities. They are one.” The track Rituals is one of the great pop singles of 2026. A song about embracing who you are – the good and the bad - it’s stark and simple but remarkably powerful. Making mistakes is a big theme of the record. “How many wrongs till I get it right?” she asks. But with Modern Rituals , Vera Blue has created a diverse delight that succeeds on every level. Eastwood of Australian rock”. Piano player and songwriter for the hugely successful Cold Chisel, he has been making peerless solo records since the band’s break-up in the ’80s. Don, however, remains an enigmatic figure, though his songs tell you everything you need to know. As Jimmy Barnes observed, Don has “the ability to write intuitively about the human experience”. For his fifth solo album, he sings about love – in all its forms. And the last word goes to Paul Kelly: “Some people might call Don’s voice lugubrious, perhaps comparing it to Leo Kottke’s description of his own singing – ‘geese farts on a muggy day’ - but I like it. Sort of a tuneful, deeper Bryan Brown.” We got to know Celia Pavey when she came

P reviously released in 1988, this 23-track Greatest Hits album includes some key tracks that were not on the original compilation. It’s available on two-LP black vinyl and as a two-CD release. After founding member, guitar ist, songwriter, and singer Peter Geen left the band in 1970, they floundered. While they remained a popular live act, no one in their various lineups was capable of writing a hit single. In 1974 the band relocated to California where guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bob Welch left the band. Then a sliding doors moment changed the band’s life Drummer Mick Fleetwood, who at the time was also managing the band, sought advice from Los Angeles studio engineer/producer Keith Olsen about the possibility of them recording at his studio. To demonstrate the room’s ambience, Olsen chose, at random, a demo of an obscure LA act, Buckingham Nicks, that he’d been engineering. Mick liked Lindsey Bucking ham’s guitar sound so much, he met with him and asked if he’d join Fleetwood Mac. “Only if you hire my partner as well,” was his reply. And the rest, as they say, is history. The new lineup’s first two al bums – with songs mostly written by the two new members who also became lead singers - were well represented by million-selling singles such as Rhiannon , Don’t Stop, and Go Your Own Way , which are all present on this outstanding release.

music. He’s like Bon Scott and Angus Young. The band, which started in Warrnambool, has deservedly built a following around the world, notching up four Top 10 albums in Germany and Switzerland, and four Top 40 albums in the UK. They thought about calling their sixth album – their first in seven years - “Gutsy”. They ended up going down the self-titled route, delivering an album that was inspired by advice that the late-great Lemmy from Motörhead gave them: “Make music that your roadies will like.”

No bones about it, Rivers Cuomo is a genius. And Weezer are one of the greatest American bands of all time. Thirty years after their masterpiece,

Pinkerton , comes their 20th studio album, their seventh self-titled set. After the Blue Album, then Green, Red, White, Teal, and Black, comes the Gold.

GRACE CUMMINGS Bloodhorse! INERTIA

ROWENA WISE Bad Things Feel Good* ROCKET

Every Grace Cummings song sounds epic. Like Nick Cave, she can create

Triple J Unearthed music director Claire Mooney

a mood with her voice. Remarkably, she was suffering from pneumonia when she recorded My God , one of the many highlights of her fourth album. “The God here is the dark forces that are wrapping around us, that we scroll through, the toxic energy that binds us together in this modern world, and the fear we feed it every day,” the Melbourne artist explains. “I use the word ‘God’ in my music because it’s the biggest word there is. I don’t know what it means, but I feel it in a lot of things.” Again working with American producer Jonathan Wilson – who also helmed her acclaimed 2024 release Ramona - Grace Cummings has delivered an album of dark beauty.

succinctly summed up Diamond in the Rough , one of the singles from Rowena Wise’s second album, calling it “one of those songs that’ll make you stop whatever you’re doing”. The track had me thinking of America’s Aimee Mann – high praise, indeed. It’s a song about not doubting yourself. “You are enough,” Rowena sings. And she is. A captivating live performer, she’s not afraid to go deep and dark. “I wrote this album over the last couple of years through some big life changes, through some difficult experiences with my mental health, heartbreak, and shifts in my core identity.” The result? Yes, bad things feel good.

Coming in SEPTEMBER ANGUS & JULIA STONE Karaoke Bar (Sep 4) NATALIE IMBRUGLIA Algorithm (Sep 4) JULIA JACKLIN The Gem (Sep 25)

Radio legend Billy Pinnell presents Billy Pinnell’s Musical Moments on YouTube.

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