Flowerkid - Vodka Orange Juice

It’s hard to put together the words to describe the impact of flowerkid’s vodka orange juice - strikingly beautiful but stunningly heartbreaking is about as close as we can get. The latest single from 20-year-old Sydney artist Flynn Sant (who signed a management deal with Wonderlick in Australia in partnership with Best Friends Music's Danny Rukasin, co-manager for Billie Eilish and FINNEAS for North America last year) the track details his experience of coming out as trans as a teenager. “It was hugely cathartic writing this song. I was on the coast in a caravan by the water, reflecting on my past,” said Sant of the track.

“I did it in one take and started crying by the time I got to the last chorus. I hope when other people are listening to this they feel the same way. If you are listening and feel like you are not accepted for who you are - please know that you are loved. My heart goes out to all of you.” One of the year’s best tracks.

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes - Off With His Head

There is nothing quite like a Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes jam to really liven the vibe, whether you’re dancing around your own living room or you’re out on the town (fingers crossed on the latter for the near future). 

A band who unapologetically demand to be heard in a live setting with each passing release, one of the Rattlesnakes’ recent tracks Off With His Head, released off the group’s impending fourth studio album Sticky, serves up a spitfire delight with the British punk rockers also teaming up with emerging UK artist Cassyette (whom Frank Carter has recently also dubbed as "Britain’s answer to Miley Cyrus.")

Taking aim at the patriarchal society, Off With His Head is a raucous endeavour that solidifies the Rattlesnakes knack for weaving infectious ferocity with actual hard-hitting subject matter. Throw in the sweltering performance from newcomer Cassyette, and you’ve got a recipe for positive change and dancefloor shenanigans that burrows into your ears with fiery swagger. Smash the patriarchy, Rattlesnakes-style.

Gang Of Youths - The Man Himself

You can’t help but be struck by the beauty of Gang Of Youths' latest single, The Man Himself. Built around ‘Imenetuki Mangaia’ - a recording by David Fanshawe featuring performers on the island of Mangaia during the 1980s - feels like the fullest embodiment of the next era of Gang Of Youths that we’ve heard so far (following on from the already impressive Unison, which was released back in July). At its core, the track is a growing up song but it’s not teen angst or pent up rage. Instead, it’s a different kind - a mellowing, a reflection, and a realisation of what it means to be an adult and to show up for the people you love. Plus, any track that features a percussion cameo from Australian F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo is alright by us...

Germein - Good For A Girl

Unashamedly pop, Adelaide’s Germein have been working at it both here and overseas for many years getting better and better as they go. With a turn to a more sophisticated sound with Talking, the understated cool and the biting message of Good For A Girl could be the thing to finally catch attention locally.

Girl & Girl - Misery Man

This Gold Coast quartet are fast becoming one of Australia’s most exciting proponents of post-punk. With a bassline literally buzzing along underneath a commanding vocal and melancholy guitar, a sharp drum rhythm cutting through it all. At 1.38 chaos explodes, then subsides, builds again and then at 2.54 it’s all over too soon. Taken from their standout EP A Typical Friday Night (Shame, Sex And Misery).

Grace Cummings - Heaven

Hearing Grace Cummings’ voice for the first time is an experience that begs for the impossibility of happening again.

The second the Melbourne singer-songwriter hits with that husky vibrato is transformative - throwing the listener into a world of audible captivation like no other. With Heaven - the first single from her upcoming second album Storm Queen - Cummings takes that gift she’s been bestowed with and distills it into its purest form yet. Those first two words sung acapella before the guitar comes in produces a spine-tingle that just has to be heard to be believed, and kick off an ethereal four minute and forty-five second journey that continually builds to a phenomenal crescendo. It’s damn near impossible not to be hooked on Cummings from the jump.

Hatchie - This Enchanted

Almost two years since the release of her debut album Keepsake, Australian artist Hatchie finally returns with infectious new single This Enchanted. Picking up where her previous work left off, Hatchie's latest efforts continue to toe that intensely fine line between dream pop and outright pop. On This Enchanted, a seamless combination of bouncy, '90s inspired house-piano, reverb laden guitar and sunny, angelic vocal hooks opens the doors for something that is somehow equal parts dark and moody, and joyously effervescent.

KYE - Tuesday (Featuring Jerome Farah)

Tuesday is one of those ‘wait to get out of the car at the supermarket until the track is finished and can find out what it’s called so you can become obsessed with it and play it on repeat later’ kinda tracks. We know this because well, it happened to us. A collaboration from two of the country’s most impressive young artists, expect to see Tuesday on ‘best of list 2021’ lists or at the very least, to soundtrack your summer.

Milan Ring - Pick Me Up (Featuring Jean Deaux)

Hearing a party anthem in an era where partying isn’t exactly on the cards could easily feel infuriating, but Pick Me Up is so much more than a pining for dance-floors and big nights out. The collab between Sydney singer Milan Ring and Chicago-based rapper Jean Deaux is a lamenting of an experience many women have to endure in the public eye - wherein the female identity is both celebrated and lambasted in equal measure by the ‘pick-up culture’ that has bleed into the world of clubs and nightlife. While the commentary is brilliant and scathing, the duo cut no corners when it comes to the music either. It’s a phenomenally well produced and mixed track that sails into your ears with total ease.

A banger with a message will never be unwelcome round these parts.

Phoebe Bridgers - That Funny Feeling

Very few artists have saturated pop culture during the pandemic in quite the same way as LA-based musician Phoebe Bridgers and comedian Bo Burnham. While Bridger's plaintive, incisive records became the moody, official soundtrack of being locked indoors, Burnham’s dark-yet-insightful special Inside quickly set the bar for quarantine art, and provided a thoughtful escape from being unable to escape. With both artists clearly capable of creating beautiful art from gloomy subject matters, Bridger's cover of Burnham’s That Funny Feeling seems like a no brainer. It’s a wonder it’s taken this long to manifest.

RedHook - Sentimental Surgery

If you’re in the market for an effervescent punk party anthem, Sydney’s RedHook recently busted out a legitimate bop for the ages in the form of Sentimental Surgery.  Chocked full of bustling synths and crisp guitars, Sentimental Surgery finds the trio wholeheartedly embracing some bouncy ’90s and early ’00s emo pop stylings, alongside a whole lotta shimmy and melodic mischief, helmed by the effervescent Emmy Mack on vocal duties. Inspired by the girthy lockdowns the COVID era has slammed over us all, Sentimental Surgery is a sharp and cheery snapshot of being entirely not OK - but with a wink of shared experience that leaves you full of cheer rather than the typical pandemic doom and gloom subject matter.

A fresh and buoyant addition to the group’s repertoire, following their debut EP Bad Decisions earlier this year, Sentimental Surgery is the anthem we all need right now: authentic issues laced with vivacious hooks and just a touch of nostalgic emo.

Sleep Token - Hypnosis

If you can't fall under the spell of Hypnosis by Sleep Token, then you are truly asleep at the wheel. The smokiest of vocals lulls the listener into the calmest of trances, the wall of guitars consumes the body and puts masked vocalist Vessel squarely in control of the listener's functions. The track hits full tilt and the fully-surrendered listener gives over to it - the final minute of the track will have the listener proclaiming.... WORSHIP - and with that, the listener is now an acolyte of Sleep Token. Hypnosis is from Sleep Token's sophomore release This Place Will Become Your Tomb and is absolutely the stand-out track from the record, amongst a slew of tracks for fans of artists as diverse as Deftones, James Blake, Tesseract, Frank Ocean and Bring Me The Horizon.

Soft Cell - Bruises On My Illusions

Queer elder statesperson Marc Almond seems to be looking back over a life of missed opportunities. Along with Dave Ball, Almond helped pioneer a new age of electronic music as they took their cover of Tainted Love to #1 around the world in 1981. Famously though, the band made little money off their biggest selling hit and were often scorned as one-hit wonders. However, they remained popular in Europe with a string of hits and in recent years played a reunion show to 20,000 fans in pre-COVID London. And so here they are, 40 years later and their electropop drama is as vital as ever. All minimal synth rumbles and hi-hats underlying Almond’s distinctive vocal building to a towering chorus of piano and choir. It’s the neo noir song that you hear in your head as you twirl around the kitchen singing into the egg whisk – star of your own dark musical.

St Paul & The Broken Bones - The Last Dance

St Paul & The Broken Bones slayed it at Bluesfest a couple of years ago with their unique blend of party-starting disco soul. Pigeonhole them at your peril, but one thing's for sure, this is another banger and is a good start to their new album due in January.

Tori Amos - Spies

Tori Amos has never been the easiest artist to pin down stylistically - taking inspiration from anywhere she can find it, the musician has never been shackled to the remits of expectation.

Now in her sixth decade as a working musician, Amos continues to evolve and grow with the times, all the while keeping that thread of welcome indefinability throughout her work. With Spies, what starts out feeling like a new-age atmospheric piece suddenly takes a sharp left turn 30 seconds in, to become a bass-driven indie jam that completely belies any generational expectations. Amos’ propensity towards absurd poignance (“that hippopotamus must stay anonymous for now” - she sings of the looming feelings within) are striking in their imagery.

Whatever it is that Amos has - that intangible gift that cannot truly be put to paper - beams like a beacon in this tune.

You can get these new tunes on the go and all in one place thanks to our Hits Of October Spotify playlist. Check it out below: