Lizzo feat. Cardi B - Rumors

Picked by: Jessica Dale

Did The Music team collectively watch Lizzo's Rumors featuring Cardi B over 15 times in the first hour it was released? All the rumours are true, yeah. Was it exactly the track we need right now? Confirmed. The first single from Lizzo since her epic Cuz I Love You album, Rumors has already proven itself as a bonafide hit, climbing charts and already welllll into the tens of millions of streams. It's Lizzo doing what Lizzo does best - not giving two shits - and with Cardi B jumping on board for the collab, we think this could go on to be her biggest hit yet. The WAP of 2021?  We think yes.

Jerome Farah - Concrete Jungle Fever

Picked by: Andrew Mast

Farah’s performance of I Can’t Breathe was a highlight of last year’s ABC music series The Sound. Concrete Jungle Fever taps further into Farah’s energetic talents with a song that feels like a summer anthem that’s landed way in advance. Rhythmically explosive with one of the year’s most dynamic vocal deliveries, this also comes with a super-charged Sanjay De Silva video.

Thrice - Robot Soft Exorcism

Picked by: Tiana Speter

Sugar and spice and all things Thrice lies in wait on the latest tune Robot Soft Exorcism from the California juggernauts. With their impending 11th studio album Horizons/East due out next month, it’s been a tantalising journey to the eventual release, particularly with the recent Radiohead-esque Robot Soft Exorcism fluidly ebbing over a ⅞ gooey wonderland. Think Radiohead’s 15 Steps coupled with Thrice’s bewitching riffage and grunt and you’ve got yourself a heady stew that will equally transcend and inspire you deeper into the 2021 iteration of Thrice. Pulpy electronics, stomps and the wavering might of lead vocalist Dustin Kensrue? I would follow this band to the horizon and/or a robot exorcism and beyond purely off this track alone. 

June Jones - Motorcycle

Picked by: Joe Dolan

June Jones has already had a bumper 2021 with the release of her acclaimed second album, Leafcutter. It was a massive step forward for the musician, who continues to showcase her incredible knack for songwriting and vulnerability in her work. With her recent single Motorcycle, however, she dials it up higher than she’s ever taken it before.

Jones’ hyper-vivid imagery of intimacy cuts through everything else here like a knife. The visuals that get projected into the listener's brain - a person with their legs wrapped around another like they’re straddling a Kawasaki - is somehow so incredibly warm and human despite the allusions to cold machinery. It’s a beautiful exercise in thematic balance, with her heartbreaking lyrics on dysphoria battling against the upbeat synth instrumentation. And yet, despite the dissonance, the two are symbiotic in creating an incredible piece of art.

The Money War - Miles Away

Picked by: Dan Cribb

Feeling stressed out or uneasy? The delightful indie folk of WA duo The Money War, aka Carmen and Dylan Ollivierre, is exactly what you need. While Miles Away explores the heartache of feeling emotionally distant from a loved one, it delivers warm acoustic guitar, delicate percussion and stunning vocals from Carmen, resulting in another charming and soothing single from the pair.

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Aloha! (The White Lotus Theme)

Picked by: Andrew Mast

The unexpected HBO hit The White Lotus may be over but the show’s best element remains with us in the form of Tapia De Veer’s delightful amalgam of percussion and animal sounds. Joyful, unnerving, uplifting and stifling all at the same time. Tapia De Veer has been supplying wonderful music for wonderful shows for years now (Utopia UK, The Third Day and even an episode of Black Mirror) but these are his finest 74 seconds to date.

Amyl & The Sniffers - Security

Picked by: Jessica Dale

From the opening seconds of Amyl & The Sniffers' Security, we knew it was going to be one of our favourites for both August and also for forever. Considering that half the country hasn't been able to get a tap poured beer for over a month, the line "let me in your pub" really does hit differently. It's another taste of what's to come for the Melbourne group, who are set to release their second album, Comfort To Me, next month. 

"If you have to explain what this record is like, I reckon it’s like watching an episode of The Nanny but the setting is an Australian car show and the Nanny cares about social issues and she’s read a couple of books, and Mr Sheffield is drinking beer in the sun," wrote frontperson Amy Taylor of the forthcoming release. "It’s a Mitsubishi Lancer going slightly over the speed limit in a school zone. It’s realising how good it is to wear track pants in bed. It’s having someone who wants to cook you dinner when you’re really shattered. It’s me shadow-boxing on stage, covered in sweat, instead of sitting quietly in the corner." We couldn't be more ready.

New Found Glory - Backseat

Picked by: Dan Cribb

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Taken from the US pop punk outfit's upcoming Forever And Ever x Infinity...And Beyond!!! album, Backseat commands you to at least tap your foot. It’s got breakneck verses and classic NFG chorus hooks.

Captives - Buried & Bones

Picked by: Tiana Speter

A lot of things may be metaphorically dead and buried in 2021, but as Melbourne punk rockers Captives have significantly proven this month with their latest track Buried & Bones: punk’s well and truly alive and kicking. Marking the group’s first sign of new music for this year, Buried & Bones brings everything we all probably need at this point in time, with some healthy angst and rattling rage gurgling away amongst some melodic euphoria (an unsurprising reality, given the tune was itself concocted during one of the countless lockdowns Melbourne has gone through). 

An electrifying slice of Australian modern punk, Captives continue to prove themselves to be a significant force to be reckoned with with each passing release. And for a surefire way to get out some healthy anger as the world goes mad around us: pop on this track, dial up the volume and let rip with Buried & Bones. Just maybe clear the coffee table out of the way first so you don’t end up damaging any actual bones in the process.

Tom Cardy - HYCYBH?

Picked by: Joe Dolan

In 1971, Marvin Gaye asked What’s Going On? Just four years later, Queen questioned, "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?" And it wouldn’t be until the new millennium that we would receive the most philosophical query ever put to music - Who Let The Dogs Out?

Now in 2021, Sydney musician Tom Cardy is following in the steps of his poetic predecessors with HYCYBH: a quandary that has plagued humankind for centuries that is only now scratching at the surface of an answer. It’s difficult to gauge how far Cardy goes to resolve this issue (Too far? Not far enough? Perhaps these questions, too, will be poised to the performer in the future), however, it’s hard not to admire the sheer tenacity that comes with one man's journey into enlightenment.