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THE MUSHROOM TAKEOVER!

We’re letting the finest musical fungi spread their mycelium over Vital Vinyl this month, showcasing the very best recent records from Mushroom artists in celebration of the beloved label’s 50th anniversary. Words Alex Burgess, Zoe Radas, Jeff Jenkins

CHART Vinyl

DMA’S HOW MANY DREAMS? (2023) NEON YELLOW VINYL / JB-EXCLUSIVE TRANSLUCENT GOLD VINYL

RVG BRAIN WORMS (2023) BLUE VINYL

Leapfrogging the perils of hype and slaloming past their influences, RVG have married their wit and wisdom with new insight into how the best, worst, and weirdest of us

On How Many Dreams? , DMA’S elevate the everyday to euphoric levels, recasting

get through the day on third album Brain Worms . Is it mental? Sure. Is it a great reminder that everything’s made up, and one thing is just as wack as another? Absolutely. It’s a maxim the post-punk darlings have taken into creation of this absorbing record, which follows Feral (2020) and A Quality of Mercy (2017), both

them in a light worthy of our attention. It’s what makes the imagery of songs such

as Fading Like a Picture so vivid, and means 21 Year Vacancy is successful in exploring a spectrum

critically lauded for their limber, bristling, return-to-Oz post punk styles. Like those albums, Brain Worms mixes the absurd with the very real, but also sifts frontwoman Romy Vager’s own internal anxieties into freshly-shucked arrangements with new electronics. TOP TRACK: Squid FAST FACT: Vocalist Romy Vager was inspired to write Squid after seeing a model of a Tiktaalik – the ancient, stumpy-finned fish which crawled out of the primordial swamp and evolved into four-legged land animals – at a museum, while the band were on tour in England.

1. TAYLOR SWIFT Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

of emotions with relatable sentiment. It’s not as if there haven’t been other acts who have tried to draw water from the same stream as the DMA’S, it’s just that the Aussie lads have done it that much better. TOP TRACK: Olympia FAST FACT: DMA’S signed to Mushroom’s I OH YOU without having officially released a single track or even played a live show.

2. TAYLOR SWIFT Midnights

3. TAYLOR SWIFT Lover

4. WHAM!

The Singles: Echoes from the Edge of Heaven 5. TAYLOR SWIFT Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

THE TESKEY BROTHERS THE WINDING WAY (2023) JB-EXCLUSIVE TRANSPARENT COKE BOTTLE GREEN VINYL

HATCHIE GIVING THE WORLD AWAY (2022) COKE BOTTLE CLEAR VINYL

On their third album, newly duo sized blues-soul bros The Teskey Brothers stretch their stylistic embrace from the warmth of their signature sound to include some elegant risks – and it’s paid off in soaring spades. Working with American producer Eric J. Dubowsky, a sense of renewal is balanced with the uncertainty of embarking on a new adventure. One thing is certain: we’re not in Warrandyte anymore.

That the outfit Harriette Pilbeam (AKA Hatchie) wears on the cover of second album Giving the World Away is reminiscent of Juliet Capulet’s iconic costume in Baz Luhrman’s 1997 film can’t be a coincidence; the record swirls with twilit soundscapes of echoing synths and electronic rhythms in a lush, perfumed ride through a modern lover’s eyes. Tendrils of ’90s alt-pop and intriguing The Cure-esque guitar curl around Pilbeam’s celestial vocals, in a truly transportive album which will

6. TAYLOR SWIFT Red (Taylor’s Version)

7. KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth 8. 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER The Feeling of Falling Upwards (Live from the Royal Albert Hall)

TOP TRACK: Blind Without You FAST FACT: Josh Teskey has said the band decided to cover The Zombies’ 1968 track This Will Be Our Year on the album because it’s ”one of the most beautiful and interesting songs of all time, that everyone should know but not many people have really heard of.”

bewitch you from its first moments. TOP TRACK: This Enchanted

FAST FACT: Hatchie wrote many of the album’s songs at her home in Brisbane with her partner, The Creases’ Joe Agius.

JACK RIVER ENDLESS SUMMER (2023) COKE BOTTLE GREEN VINYL Jack River’s second album sounds like a party, but dig a little deeper and you’ll discover a darker side to this endless summer; every shindig delivers a hangover. The title is also a reference to climate change, but River is able to sugarcoat some serious subject matter, elevating the listener out of their everyday concerns with sweet, ’60s-tinged pop. Endless Summer proves she’s that most powerful of pop artists, capable of conveying a message all wrapped in magical melodies.

9. TAYLOR SWIFT evermore

TOP TRACK: Endless Summer FAST FACT: The artist has said the climate change themes of Endless Summer became ”even more tactile” after she discovered she was pregnant just after the album’s completion.

10. LANA DEL REY Born to Die

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