Favourite Five Recent Releases

Five of the best albums from the recent postings at Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you're looking for a quick fix.

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Father John Misty: Mahāśmaśāna (digital outlets)

25 Nov 2024  |  2 min read  |  1

The first three singles released in advance of this new album by Josh Tillman (Father John Misty) were so majestic they seemed to herald something special on his sixth album Mahāśmaśāna, which apparently means “the great cremation ground” in Sanskrit. There was the heroic, seven minute Screamland (with Low's Alan Sparhawk on guitar) which offered “and you could say... > Read more

She Cleans Up

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days (Via Records/digital outlets)

18 Nov 2024  |  2 min read  |  1

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this double album in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics and track credits and in a classy cover. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . In the rush to embrace new alt.country or young mainstream artists it's easy to overlook the career of someone like the... > Read more

If Only

Moana and the Tribe: Ono (vinyl, digital outlets)

4 Nov 2024  |  2 min read

It was so long ago when I first met Moana Maniapoto (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa) -- then Moana Jackson -- that I can only guess it must have been the late Eighties. It was at some unprepossessing venue in South Auckland and for the life of me I can't remember what it was all about. Maybe we were judging a band competition? I just remember her then-husband Willie Jackson being an... > Read more

Tū, with Jani Lauzon

The Smile: Cutouts (digital outlets)

28 Oct 2024  |  1 min read

It only seems like yesterday (it was January) when we wrote about the new album by The Smile -- the band of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood with drummer Tom Skinner – and acclaiming it as very strong independent entity outside the Yorke-Greenwood's original outfit Radiohead. That album Wall of Eyes (when added to their debut A Light For Attracting Attention) drew us to conclude that was a... > Read more

Instant Psalm

Jim Nothing: Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn (digital outlets)

28 Oct 2024  |  1 min read

It is no exaggeration to say that every week Elsewhere sees half a dozen singles from new young local artists being highly touted and almost the same number of album from those who have just started to make an impression. “It's a hard world to get a break in”, as the song says and unfortunately we'd observe the overselling a young artists' talents by well-meaning PR people might... > Read more

Raleigh Arena