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Hatchie Giving the World Away

If Kylie had continued down the 'Indie Kylie' path she explored on the Impossible Princess album, she would sound like Hatchie. The second album for the Brisbane singer (real name: Harriette Pilbeam) is filled with shimmering electro beats and dream-pop hooks. How the first single, This Enchanted , didn’t become a smash hit is one of 2021’s great mysteries. It sounds just as good now, “washing over me” as it transports you back to the ’90s. There’s a restlessness at the heart of Giving the World Away as Hatchie deals with dreams and desire, self-esteem and self- confidence. “If I had everything I wanted,” she wonders in Quicksand , “would I want more?” But this album shows that Hatchie is the real deal. And like all great pop music, it manages to sound both nostalgic and right now. Some kind of bliss, indeed. (Ivy League) Jeff Jenkins

FEATURE ARTIST

Daniel Johns FutureNever

FutureNever sounds like a rock opera. That’s an easy description of Daniel Johns’ second solo album, his first in seven years. The harder part is deciphering the storyline. A rock star seeking redemption? “I’m excited to make amends,” he sings. A cry for help? One song is called Someone Call an Ambulance . A search for love and acceptance? “This song is for everyone,” Johns offers in the opening track. FutureNever might be all, or none, of those things. “Please don’t try and understand,” Johns declares in Emergency Calls Only , which is probably good

advice. Just enjoy the trip. Those craving a Silverchair reunion, or a return to their ’90s sound, will be disappointed, though Johns reinvents the band’s 1997 hit Freak as a disturbing nursery rhyme, and adds a third part to Young Modern ’s Those Thieving Birds , emphasising the lines: “No more big lies, no more goodbyes.” Everything about this genre-busting record feels sprawling, though the longest song is just 4:38. Johns packs more ideas into just one side of a D90 cassette than most artists have in their entire career. And though it’s filled with collaborations – half of the songs have a “feat.” credit – it sounds very much like a solo record, the work of an unpredictable Prince-like genius. Johns has chosen not to release any singles, a smart move, because there’s no doubt FutureNever is an album. An immensely rewarding, immersive experience. (BMG) Jeff Jenkins

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Endless Rooms Great bands seem to be a dying breed. So props to Melbourne’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever who appear to be a gang – a bunch of mates taking on the world. Pearl Like You , a dreamy one-minute soundscape, opens the door to their third album, which sounds like they have ransacked your ’80s and ’90s record collection, grabbed the coolest indie rock sounds and then created something new and exciting. As they sing in The Way It Shatters : “The way is going backwards to get to the start.” The aptly titled Dive Deep is the centrepiece of the record. With a hypnotic guitar line, ominous bass and an unfolding storyline, it captures the band in full flight. It sounds instantly familiar, but like all of RBCF’s best work, it takes you someplace else. Through endless rooms they walk. (Ivy League) Jeff Jenkins

Belle and Sebastian A Bit of Previous On their tenth album, Scottish indie-pop pioneers Belle and Sebastian continue to delight with their idiosyncratic sound and charming lyrics, qualities that have come to define the band for nearly three decades. A Bit of Previous offers instant classics with Young and Stupid and Talk to Me Talk to Me, the latter pairing existentialist observations with dazzling synths. Elsewhere, the band’s introspection brings out a delicate melancholy, with the ballad Do It For Your Country sounding almost like a lost Velvet Underground song. Penultimate track Sea of Sorrow is the band at their most profound, the song encapsulating the finesse that makes the group so remarkable. (Matador Records/Belle and Sebastian) Holly Pereira

Greta Stanley Real Love in Real Life

Warpaint Radiate Like This

Every time I write Greta Stanley’s name, I write “Great”. But it’s not a mistake, because she has delivered one of 2022’s great pop records. “I hope it lands,” the Cairns- based artist sang in the album’s first single. It has. Stanley’s 2017 debut was called Full Grown. But her second album is a giant leap forward. “I guess I’m getting older now, I don’t know what that means for me,” she ponders in the opening track, Plant My Feet . What it means is a compelling set of songs about life and love, family and the future, where Stanley is not afraid to expose her vulnerability and insecurities. And after all the pop thrills, she delivers a country coda with the title track, an old-fashioned country lament. It’s a surprising conclusion, but it shows that Greta Stanley is capable of anything. (Double Drummer) Jeff Jenkins

With members continents apart during the pandemic, art-rockers Wapaint were forced to record their fourth LP separately. The band’s chemistry isn’t lost however, with Radiate Like This their most cohesive and meticulously crafted release to date, as it captures the essence of their craft whilst also offering profound lyrical insights. A languid, comparatively stripped- back sound forms the basis of the album, with tracks Hard to Tell You and Altar beginning with sparse instrumentation before the unveiling of shimmering choruses and the band’s trademark harmonies. Over the years Warpaint have remained a spellbinding force, and this record asserts once and for all that the quartet are one of the most enduring groups in indie music.

(Heirlooms/Virgin Music Australia) Holly Pereira

54 MAY 2022

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