You don’t usually come to Stand Atlantic expecting heartwarming fare.
asserted
You → come → fare
On their previous records, the Sydney alt-rock band, led by the magnetic Bonnie Fraser, excavated relationship breakdowns (2024’s Was Here) and attempted to bottle the suffocating anxiety of the COVID-19 pandemic on 2022’s f.e.a.r. (the opening track was called Doomsday, to give you an idea).
asserted
track → lead → idea
So what happens when Stand Atlantic find happiness?
asserted
Atlantic → happen → happiness
Great things, it turns out.
asserted
it → turn → ?
After dealing with a bout of writer’s block following Was Here, Fraser broke through the fog and wrote Favourite Flavour about the blissful start of a new relationship.
asserted
Fraser → deal → relationship
Godbreath, the band’s fifth album, unfolded soon after, with the band once again linking up with longtime producer Stevie Knight.
asserted
band → unfold → Knight
Don’t mistake happiness for toothlessness: Godbreath crackles with energy across its 11 tracks, with David Potter’s guitars and Jonno Panichi’s drums as potent and locked in as ever (see the wailing guitar solo on standout NEXT2U, or the crunching breakdowns on d.L.M.A. and SO COOL).
asserted
guitars → mistake → L.M.A.
After avoiding love songs for years, Fraser carves some beauties in Velcro and NEXT2U, finding a new vehicle for her mighty vocals.
asserted
Fraser → avoid → vocals
Edge of Vegas, another highlight, is a moment of pause and clarity, as Fraser reflects on a life lived as a frayed nerve ending, always braced for pain.
asserted
Fraser → reflect → pain
But for the first time, Fraser and Godbreath put that feeling in the rearview.
asserted
Fraser → put → rearview
“Africa is the greatest ghostwriter of all time,” says Sampa the Great in the press notes for Nu Zamrock, a statement which succinctly acts as a thesis for her new album.
asserted
which → say → album
The record opens with a recorded conversation between the Zambian-born, Botswana-raised artist and her blood uncle George Kunda (aka Groovy Joe), a founding member of Witch, a band which spearheaded the 1970s Zamrock movement.
asserted
which → open → movement
As Sampa describes it on the track, the movement was defined by the ways in which it injected historically Western genres – such as psychedelic and garage rock – with a Zambian sonic identity.
asserted
it → describe → identity
“You were among the first to do that,” the ARIA Award-winner says to her uncle.
asserted
winner → do → uncle
“That’s the creating of a genre.”
asserted
That → ’ → genre
So follows an album that merges past, present, and future to create a kaleidoscopic tapestry of sound and identity; it is shaped by legacy but creates something unequivocally new.
asserted
it → follow → something
Canary hums with explosive, futuristic production as Sampa spits lines like: “Last time I checked, I got the needle and the thread, weave that shit together.”
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needle → hum → shit
Location, another standout, boasts an intoxicatingly ragged drumbeat while eviscerating the West’s artistic exploitation of the African continent.
asserted
Location → boast → continent
Throughout Nu Zamrock – which also features appearances from the Melbourne-based angelic chanteuse Mwanje Tembo and Aussie pop luminary Sia – Sampa the Great drips with charisma, facilitating rapture and revitalisation.
asserted
Sampa → feature → rapture
“What do I do?” she asks herself on the album’s closing track I Can Love – but she already knows the answer: “I will renew.”
asserted
I → do → answer
- Wishy: Everyone is making ’90s alt-rock again.
asserted
Everyone → make → rock
Rock music’s latest saviours swoon into the apocalypse.
asserted
saviours → swoon → apocalypse
After the hedonistic Rush, pop’s ultimate party boy is just looking for love.
asserted
boy → look → love
- Gabriella Cilmi: At 16 she was a global pop star, then she disappeared.
asserted
she → disappear → 16
What happened?
asserted
What → happen → ?
The Aporia
