This Week's Must-Listen Singles: HAIM, Hermitude, Collarbones + more

Every week, we're hammered with tonnes of new music from Australia and afar, so much so that at times, it feels a little overwhelming and you're not quite sure where to begin. Every week, we run down this week's must-listen singles and releases, this week featuring names like HAIM, Hermitude, Angel Olsen and more. Check out Pilerats' homepage for more brilliant music and news, or subscribe to our Spotify Office Playlist for easy listening.

HAIM - Summer Girl

Since their 2013 debut album Days Are Gone, LA sister-trio HAIM have blossomed into indie-pop favourites; something only further cemented with their long-awaited second album, 2017's Something To Tell You. Now, they're taking a big step forward with their first taste of new music since (bar an appearance on Gesaffelstein's album Hyperion), moving into a brass-ier territory marked with a new single, Summer Girl. Taking notes from classic Lou Reed and David Bowie's more down-tempo cuts, Summer Girl is HAIM's most laid-back and casually-energised track yet, with their interchanging vocals meeting a relaxed instrumental that swells with soft jazz notes and delicate horns. Thematically-wise, however, Summer Girl is something a bit heavier, which we'll leave to Danielle Haim to explain: "I started the song when I found out my partner had cancer. I was on tour and felt like I was trying to send positive energy his way almost telepathically. Whenever I would come home in between shows I wanted to be his sunshine - his summer when he was feeling dark. His hope when he was feeling hopeless." It comes with a visual shot by good friend and collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson, and they'll also feature on Charli XCX's forthcoming record, Charli.

Hermitude - OneFourThree feat. Buddy & BJ The Chicago Kid

If there's one Australian electronic act that has to be named our country's most versatile, then we'd nominate Hermitude. Since their earlier work some 15 years ago (!), the pairing have attempted - and triumphed - almost every sub-genre under the dance music umbrella and its intersection with hip-hop, whether it be jazz-y, lo-fi numbers akin to BADBADNOTGOOD or the thick trap that defined their most recent long-release, 2015's Dark Night Sweet Light. They're also two of Australia's keenest collaborators, and both of these defining elements are now together on their latest single, OneFourThree. Featuring Kendrick collaborator BJ The Chicago Kid and Cosmo's Midnight album guest Buddy (who's also worked with J. Cole), OneFourThree sits somewhere between Hermitude's two most prevalent sounds, with Buddy and BJ both adding their signature hip-hop/R&B twists to a funk-fuelled production from Hermitude that's a bit on the down-tempo sound compared to their high-octane last album, but full of gentle grooves that still make it dancefloor-ready. Their new album, Pollyanarchy, will arrive within the next months, presumedly before a national tour this November.

Collarbones - Deep

In the time since their acclaimed 2014 break-out Return, cult-adored Australian electronic duo Collarbones have blossomed into figureheads of a growingly experimental electro-pop scene, moving between subtle interludes (The Gate) to rich synth-pop amongst the year's best thus far (Everything I Want). They're sharing their first album in five years, Futurity, on September 6th, but before it's arrival, they've shared another album tease called Deep, and it sees them switch things up - again. Deep is a little more up-tempo and dance-focused, with swelling synth rhythms and funk grooves meeting Marcus Whale's powerful vocals, which moves between bright and dark alongside the track's production rises and falls. "The first version we made that day was a slow ballad that I almost forgot about, before sending it around a bit later to Travis and our manager Tom, who quickly realised that it might actually be pretty good," says Marcus on the track. "It took a long time to find the right version, but we finally settled on the borderline filthy groove you hear today." Futurity is out September 6, with a launch show in Melbourne and Sydney planned for later that month - more information HERE.

Woodes - How Long I'd Wait

Since her early work with production partner Elkkle, Melbourne singer-songwriter Woodes has blossomed into a Pilerats favourite - most recently thanks to her sophomore EP Golden Hour in early 2018. She's been fairly quiet (at least release-wise, she's toured both in headline mode and support mode, and covered Vance Joy for triple j's coveted Like A Version) in the time since, but in 2019 and into 2020 that'll be changing, as we move towards her long-awaited debut album. How Long I'd Wait is its first tease, and it welcomes the expected-layering of Woodes' music fleshed out to perhaps its most climactic thus far, with strings, electric guitar and subtle percussion meeting Woodes' triumphant vocal. "When I was overseas I wrote How Long I’d Wait after a big block of time away from home," she says on the single. "knew when I wrote it that this was the start of the new album. I’m learning patience and I’m very happy to be pulled out of my daydreams." Woodes' debut album will be out in 2020, but in the meantime, catch her supporting Thelma Plum on the east coast throughout August.

Angel Olsen - All Mirrors

Angel Olsen has been a long-standing favourite in delicate indie-pop for years now, blossoming into a cult-favourite largely through her 2016/2017 double-peat of long-releases, MY WOMAN and Phases respectively. In 2019, however, she's having a resurgence, thrown back into the spotlight - a more commercial spotlight at that - with a feature on Mark Ronson's Late Night Feelings ("It took a bit of convincing to get Angel in, she certainly doesn’t usually work or associate in the pop world too much," says Mark on his collaboration with Olsen, Why Hide), and now with a new album All Mirrors, out October 4 on Jagjaguwar. Its title-track and leading single, All Mirrors, is a delicate almost-five-minutes of building Angel Olsen beauty, which a 14-piece orchestra (!) building energy underneath Olsen's soft, comforting vocal tones. "I chose this one as the title because I liked the theme: the theme of how we are all mirrors to and for each other," she says on the release. "Even if that is not all of it, there is always an element of projection in what we’d like to see in people and scenarios and in the way we see ourselves in those scenarios, with those people."