New Music Friday: 13th Floor New Album Picks: May 10, 2024

Its New Music Friday again and still it New Zealand Music Month. We’ve got one new Kiwi album to tell you about (maybe two) and the remainder from the rest of the world.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda picks these five new releases for your consideration:

1. C. Zukey – Stone Fruut (Really Nice Records) Its the debut album from this Canadian-born Kiwi. C. Zukey shares; “This record for me is a journey through the grieving process. The ‘Grief Cycle’ isn’t like experiencing each stage until completion before moving onto the next stage. You might bounce from anger to bargaining, you might be in denial and then suddenly feel acceptance. Or you might experience every stage in the course of 20 minutes. The grief process can be seen in this album as a whole. There are moments of bargaining, depression, acceptance, denial etc because each song was written in a different stage of grief.” Holy Water is the fourth single from the album:

2. Angus & Julia Stone – Cape Forestier (Nettwerk)  The siblings are back together with this, their sixth studio album. “Cape Forestier, our latest record, holds a really special place in our hearts – a chapter in the ever-unfolding book about the road we’re traveling together. It feels reminiscent of our earlier records in terms of style; there’s a real acoustic rawness to the sound. However, the songwriting and performances are naturally tied to the humans we are right now, with all the branches of experience hanging in there. We couldn’t be more excited to share this music. It’s been an incredible experience writing and recording these songs together.”

3. Mick Harvey – Five Ways To Say Goodbye (Mute). The former Bad Seed’s first solo album in over a decade and also the fifth and final of a series. “(The album) is kind of about farewells or saying goodbye,” explains Harvey, “There’s a lot around that subject so it’s got a kind of melancholy and sentimentality around it.” The theme is multifaceted: the album may be the closing chapter on a five-part series of albums that began in 2005 with One Man’s Treasure, and continued with Two of Diamonds, Three Sisters – Live At Bush Hall, and Four (Acts of Love). It’s a reflection of time passed and life elapsed, and it’s also a literal goodbye in some instances. “A lot of the songs are by people who have moved on,” says Harvey. Click here to watch the 13th Floor interview with Mick Harvey.

4. Jordan Rakei – The Loop (Decca) Jordan, of course, was born in New Zealand, but raised in Australia and is now based in London. The Loop is Rakei’s fifth studio album. “I wanted to get back to why I fell in love with music in the first place.” Jordan explains. “I found myself listening to my favourite artists again and I wanted to make an ambitious record that was centered around my vocal. I had a no-judgement approach when it came to production and songwriting choices. The album title refers to that cycle of being a child, and then having children, and the relationship with the inner child. We move forward in life on a loop that never ends and I wanted to explore that vulnerability in my lyrics.”

5. Kings Of Leon – Can We Please Have Fun (Capitol) Yes, they are still with us! This is the band’s ninth album and first on Capitol Records. So what keeps this band of brothers going? “When you have a band, there’s a bond like no other, and when you have family, you have a bond like no other,” Caleb says. “We have both of those things. I thought, if we put all our energy toward something, who is gonna stop us? Who can stop us except us?”