Image by: Ryan Downey

Welcome to the new music review where we connect you with some of the best new music from around the world. Read on, click through to our Spotify playlist and enjoy it all on 2SER!

Thom Yorke – ANIMA (FEATURE ALBUM)
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Erin Durant – Islands
Gena Rose Bruce – Can’t Make You Love Me
No Mono – Islands part 2
Peak Twins – Beloved
Sarah Bethe Nelson – Weird Glow
The Ocean Blue – Kings and Queens / Knaves and Thieves
The Saboteurs – Help Us Stranger

In 2017, Melburnian Gena Rose Bruce relocated her city life to spend 3 months in isolation in Warrnambool, Victoria. It was a time for healing, and heavily concentrated in preparing her debut album ‘Can’t Make You Love Me’. The result is a clear-eyed set of songs from start to finish, with a delightfully folky and emotive lilt pairing perfectly with Bruce’s low-rumbling, smokey vocals, and bubbling guitar work.

Other Melburnians hitting their stride this week are duo No Mono with their second release in ‘Islands part 2’. The pair is made up of Tom Snowdon (Lowlake) and Tom Iansek (Big Scary + #1 Dads), who have upped the BPM on the companion album to last year’s ‘Islands part 1’. There’s a bigger emphasis on percussion, the energy is higher, and the textures are denser but they’ve kept the intense and special atmosphere created on their debut.

We’ll also hear from The Ocean Blue and their first album in 6 years. First forming towards the end of the 80s and signed to Sire Records as teens, they shared a label home with The Cure, and Talking Heads and quickly became referential when it came to dream pop. ‘Kings and Queens / Knaves and Thieves’ is a typically jangly affair and generous with bright, melodic guitars, soaring keys and lyrical hooks.

Plus new singles from Sui Zhen, Lorelei, Sheer Mag, The Laurels, and Shannon Lay.