One of New Zealand’s great pop maestros returns, the rein (geddit?) of Lil Nas X continues, and sci-fi series Stranger Things inspires a superb single: welcome to The Spinoff Music’s best songs of June 2019. International ‘Jealous’ by Ingrid Michaelson Ingrid Michaelson’s new single hits on two obvious truths and subverts a third. Truth the … Read more
What does a Sleater Kinney collaboration with St Vincent, an epic mashup, and the return of bro-music’s moodiest navel-gazers have in common? They’re all in The Spinoff Music’s best songs of May 2019. International ‘Hurry on Home’ by Sleater Kinney 2019, and the only thing that can save the world is a Sleater-Kinney song produced … Read more
A popstar reclaims her hype, an indie-darling goes pop, and a trio of locals make good on their early promise. These are the songs of the month – five international, five local – as picked by The Spinoff’s culture editor Sam Brooks. International ‘Don’t Feel Like Crying’ by Sigrid For a while it seemed like … Read more
Every week Chartlander travels back through time, landing in a different year on the official New Zealand singles chart in the hopes of (re)discovering forgotten Top 40 gold. Today we continue our tour of classic general elections at the dawn of MMP. The date is the 12th of October, 1996, and today New Zealanders will … Read more
Our regular round-up of new songs and singles, featuring Taylor Swift’s return and an attempted relevance revival for Rod Stewart and Hot Chocolate… LEISURE – Alone Together Ahhhh Leisure, the sex gods of New Zealand music, and maybe the world. I think all of us except for killjoy Henry Oliver can agree the band’s self-titled … Read more
Our regular round-up of new songs and singles, this week featuring Miley Cyrus, HAIM, and Japanese Breakfast! Miley Cyrus – ‘Malibu’ Miley’s hip-hop holiday is over ‘Malibu’ is an easy-breezy-beautiful guitar jam about reconnecting with your ex Liam Hemsworth. There are hand claps. In the video, there are balloons. On the single artwork, Miley is … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Lorde – ‘Green Light’ (of course!) (For nine actual reviews of ‘Green Light’ click here – and excuse the weird 15/16 timing of the above video, it’s the best we could do) Arca – ‘Anoche’ Holy shit! … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Aldous Harding – ‘Horizon’ ‘Horizon’, the first single from Aldous Harding’s forthcoming album Party, is straightforward and certain, rooted in her gothic folk past, but not bound to it. Three piano chords repeat throughout, leaving room … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Stefflon Don – ‘Real Ting’ Having first come to international attention after guesting on Jeremih’s Late Nights: Europe track ‘London’, the Dutch-raised British rapper has been blowing up recently. This, the title track of her debut … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK? ????/???? The Chainsmokers – ‘Paris’ ???? On first listen, The Chainsmokers’ latest, ‘Paris’, is pretty bad. But listen to it a second, third, fourth time, and you might not stop. It’s the synth-heavy pop-drop they dominated … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. Song of the Week Grouper – ‘Headache’ In case you missed it: Paradise Valley, a new Grouper 7″ released just before Christmas, is everything you might hope it would be. ‘Headache’ is the longer of the two tracks, and stands … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. ZAYN & Taylor Swift – ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Forever’ ???? One of the most underappreciated aspects of what makes Taylor Swift such a great popstar is her impeccable sense of timing. Traversing the country-pop of Fearless and Speak Now … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. Run The Jewels – ‘Legend Has It’ Run the Jewels, the duo of Killer Mike and El-P, are tearing it up with renewed post-election anger ahead of their third album (which I assume will be called RTJ-3). On ‘Legend Has … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. SONG OF THE WEEK Nadia Reid – ‘The Arrow & The Aim’ The first single from her forthcoming sophomore album, Nadia Reid’s ‘The Arrow & The Aim’ sounds exactly like a sophomore record should: assured, confident, taking the best of … Read more
‘Best Songs Ever’ features various contributors to The Spinoff Music assessing recent songs and singles. BEST SONG EVER FOR THIS WEEK: Austra – ‘Utopia’ Sometimes it feels like the loneliest place in music is the hinterland between chart aspirant pop and austere electronic music. Those who who exist in that space lack for all kinds of … Read more