A revolving cast of contributors from the Music 101 and Wireless teams showcase some of the best new music releases from the past week.
Glass Vaults. Photo: Unknown
Glass Vaults – ‘Sacred Heart’
Glass Vaults’ newest release ‘Sacred Heart’ wouldn’t sound out of place on a Wes Anderson soundtrack. With its nostalgic atmosphere, breathless vocals and a dizzying lilted pace, the track is warm and energetic. It’s a different, more defined sound for the band and the music vigorously builds with percussive momentum, evolving into a symphony of psychedelic sounds.
‘Sacred Heart’ drifts through the perimeters of genre, pulsating with myriad sounds, hooking the listener and heightening anticipation for their upcoming debut album, Sojourn, in one movement. – Elizabeth Beattie
Beck – ‘Dreams’
Not everyone was pleased when Beck controversially took out the Grammy for Album of the Year back in February. Winning for his comeback album, Morning Phase, Beck signalled he was back in a big way, and now we have the first piece of new music since his win.
Titled ‘Dreams’, the song was co-written by Miike Snow's Andrew Wyatt and is the first single from his as-yet-untitled new record. Shaking off the sombre sounds of his last album, the track is unashamedly pop, seeing him layering his falsetto vocals over a synthy dance hook. There’s no details of his new album yet, although he has said that he wanted to make something that would be good to play live. ‘Dreams’ proves that it’ll be one to look out for. – Hannah Martin
Lunavela – ‘Burn For You’
Auckland musician Steve Mathieson has resurrected an old band name, but with a new sound. The first song from the second incarnation of Lunavela opens slow and synthy, with sombre lyrics mourning lost love. While the band name is old, the sound is closer to the final releases of Mathieson's best-known project Collapsing Cities, rather than his earlier band. Three years on from Collapsing Cities' last album, it'll be interesting to see whether Lunavela is a fully developed vision or a new space to play. – Marcus Stickley
Royal Headache – ‘High’
Royal Headache last released an album four years ago and new material nearly two years ago. The band t-shirt I bought with their debut CD that was once worn proudly with my favourite denim jacket became a gym t-shirt and has since been relegated to sleepwear. I never forgot the band and I was very excited to hear how they’ve progressed in the last four years.
Extensive touring has honed their musicianship to the level where it all just sounds so easy. ‘High’ has a nice grimey feel with just enough sludge and muddiness to make the chorus really stand out. The vocals are mixed with a greater level of clarity than their last brilliant single ‘Stand and Stare’. This combined with the honest urgency makes for a compelling song. The t-shirt might be dead by then, but when their album is released in August there should be new memories to make up for it. – Luke Jacobs
Adam Lambert – ‘Another Lonely Night’
Adam Lambert released his third studio album this week, and nestled in amongst 18 tracks of pop-but-not-quite-pop-enough-for-top-40-radio is the Kygo-esque ‘Another Lonely Night’. It’s atmospheric, soaring, and full of longing chord progressions that pull on your heartstrings like true pop gold. It builds from finger snaps and piano chords into a bassy, synth-laden anthem, opening up ahead of the first chorus into a cavernous but colourful lament full of deliciously layered production and earworm hooks.
Vocally, Lambert is as raw and relaxed on this track as you’ll ever hear him. His training (courtesy of his former life as a professional musical theatre performer) isn’t quite so obvious in his style these days, probably a combination of growing comfort with his place in pop music and the less-theatrical, restrained approach he says co-producer Max Martin encouraged him to take with the album… but ‘restrained’ for Adam Lambert still means a chorus full of octave-jumping and his signature vocal gymnastics peppering the end of the track.
This is undeniably one of the strongest songs on what you could argue is Lambert’s first breakup album, and yet it’s still not capital-M mainstream despite having access to the songwriting and production teams that back the biggest pop acts on the planet. He left Sony/RCA when it became clear the kind of music he wanted to make was not the kind of music they had any interest in releasing. His subsequent signing with Warner, and the resulting house-throwback album The Original High, shows just how little interest he has in compromising his own vision - radio, labels, or Idol-era fans be damned. – Sarin Moddle
What's your pick? Tell us about it in the comments section.