Sia, Lime Cordiale, and Pnau with Troye Sivan: Australia’s best new music for December

Pnau and Troye Sivan – You Know What I Need

For fans of: Modjo, Spiller, Chillout Sessions

On only the second day of the season, Pnau dropped the first serious contender for song of the summer. Enlisting international juggernaut Troye Sivan to drape his Timberlake-esque vocals over a bright and breezy track that recalls every teenage beach party this side of Groovejet, Pnau paint in primary colours on You Know What I Need, with blindingly bright synth patches, walls of Sivan-harmonies and an irresistibly smitten lyric set to soundtrack countless short-lived crushes. Sivan uses his silky falsetto to great effect in the chorus, as SNES-sounding bleeps chirp underneath. The only reason this won’t be played to death this summer is if Cold Heart, Pnau’s other world-beating tune, somehow keeps it off all the robot-built playlists.

For more: Check out Pnau’s remix of Lizzo’s 2 Be Loved

Gena Rose Bruce – Deep Is the Way

For fans of: Bonnie Prince Billy, Saddle Creek, Meg Baird

The arresting title track from Melbourne singer-songwriter Gena Rose Bruce’s forthcoming album is her second co-write with Bill Callahan, the prolific troubadour behind a run of often inscrutable Smog records in the 90s, as well as an enviable catalogue of Americana, released under his given name. True to the modern era, Bruce and Callahan have never met, instead exchanging ideas and song files via email, taking weeks at a time between correspondence. This unhurried mode of craft finds its way into Deep Is the Way, a slow-dancing duet that takes close to five minutes to unfold. Callahan’s stately voice cannot help but add a certain weight to any tune he appears on, while Bruce seems to channel a less fragile Hope Sandoval in her measured, warm performance. They blend beautifully and five minutes proves not nearly enough.

For more: Bruce’s second album Deep Is the Way is out 27 January

Wildfire Manwurrk – Yawk Yawk

For fans of: Sting, No Fixed Address, Peter Gabriel

Stone country in Arnhem Land is one of the most remote, awe-inspiring places on the planet. It’s from this vast and stark environment that the music of community leader Victor Rostron and his band Wildfire Manwurrk emerges. Yawk Yawk boasts an expansive sound to match the landscape: chugging guitars gallop along the plains, sweeping electric guitar chords wash through like a windstorm and a didgeridoo drones mournfully. There’s hints of dub in the loping rhythm track and reggae in the tightly wound vocal harmonies. Although Yawk Yawk deals with the tragedy of youth suicide, it is delivered as a song of hope and encouragement, intended as a salve.

For more: Listen to Wildfire Manwurrk’s debut EP The Next Future

Laura Jean – Folk Festival

For fans of: Buffy Sainte-Marie, Karen Dalton, Sufjan Stevens

It cannot be a happy coincidence that the eerie minor-key melodies and creepy string arrangements of Folk Festival happen to recall a number of female-led folk records from the 1960s, the types of hushed, handmade creations that seem shrouded in cobwebs and infused with ancient wisdom. Amateurs, from which this otherworldly song is plucked, is Melbourne artist Laura Jean’s sixth record, a loose concept album that celebrates the art of art-minus-commerce. With a recording career spanning two decades, Laura Jean has no doubt seen her share of regional folk festivals, the breeding ground of artistic amateurs who are in it purely for the love of creation. In 2022 the idea of making a living from music seems closer to a fairytale than a possibility, and Jean’s sad, wistful tune evokes the sensation that this is a grave situation we find ourselves in.

For more: Amateurs is out now

Dappled Cities – Be Here

For fans of: the Sleepy Jackson, Eno-era Bowie, Dappled Cities Fly

As the internet compresses all time and space to a few keystrokes, the nostalgia cycle is getting shorter and shorter, giving even SVU episodes filmed during the early pandemic a wistful, sepia quality. So a surprise three-song release from Dappled Cities is likely to throw minds way, way back to the heady late-aughts, when Sydney’s Kings Cross was a thriving indie-rock district and people collected weird silver discs filled with music. Released as a primer for a reunion show next year, these recordings stem from a few years back, and as such, retain that lush, dream-pop sound that Dappled Cities were flying towards with each new record. Even the metronome that opens this track sounds like band rehearsal spaces that no longer exist.

For more: Dappled Cities play Oxford Art Factory on 20 January. The Be Here EP is out now

1300 ft Sollyy – Cardio!

For fans of: Migos, Gucci Mane, 21 Savage

Aside from being a top-shelf Triple J presenter, Sollyy also happens to be one of the most interesting and inventive producers operating in our country. 1300 are a bunch of Australian Korean kids making bilingual bangers in a garage in western Sydney. Connecting via Instagram, the former provided the hard-hitting trap beat, while the latter added silly gym-rat chants, freewheeling verses and an undeniable infectious energy. It’s expertly engineered for virality, too, without any of the cynicism such a statement implies. 1300 say they were inspired to write this song after learning how popular their high-energy music is with gym junkies. “We thought it’d be funny to make a song called Cardio because we all don’t do any exercise at all,” the band explained in a presser. “We’re like asthmatic, don’t do any exercise, don’t do cardio ever.”

For more: If you haven’t yet, listen to 1300’s debut mixtape Foreign Language

Jen Cloher – Mana Takatāpui

For fans of: Liz Phair, Patti Smith, Robert Forster

Five years have flown by since Jen Cloher’s self-titled fourth album set the world on fire, garnering five-star reviews around the burning globe. Three years ago she asked Google what the Māori word for “queer” was and immediately fell in love with the term “takatāpui” and the way it rolled off the tongue. A word of beauty and grace rather than a weapon of hate, it refers to a “Māori individual who is gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender”, according to her search. “I marvelled at the idea of one word that could explain my sexuality, gender and cultural identity,” she recalls. This idea informed Cloher’s excellent new song, the lead single from her fifth record. It’s a celebration and an anthem of pride, and it’s also a laidback folk tune with island vibes, bouncing bongos and lashings of lap steel.

For more: Cloher’s next album I Am the River, the River Is Me will be out 3 March

Martin Frawley – This Is Gonna Change Your Mind

For fans of: the Go-Betweens, the Clean, Twerps

Martin Frawley takes loss hard. His debut album, Undone at 31, details the double dissolution of his band, Melbourne dolewave pioneers Twerps, and the nine-year romantic relationship that spawned the group. Towards the end of the Twerps’ all-too-brief run, Frawley’s best friend and bassist decided to quit endless touring in favour of fatherhood, and this tune was written to, quite literally, change his mind. While it didn’t have the intended outcome, the jangly, laconic tune has been polished and presented as the lead track to Frawley’s upcoming 2023 solo record, backed by an impressive cast of Melbourne musicians (Steph Hughes, Dan Luscombe, Nik Imfeld and Dan Kelly).

For more: Frawley’s second solo record is out in March. Until then, check out Undone at 31

Sia – 3 Minutes ’Til New Years

For fans of: Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Lizzo

Songwriting is a workaday occupation that is often dipped in the divine, with breathless tales of artists being mere vessels through which the innate melodies of the universe travel. Sia Furler is not only happy to dismantle such mysteries but seems to take glee in explaining how quickly and effortlessly she has knocked off past hits such as Chandelier, Diamonds and Titanium. 3 Minutes ’Til New Years contains all her finest tricks: synthetic horn blasts over a skittering beat, a hook you can sing by the second time it comes around (“balloons to burst, it’s December 31st”), anthemic empowerment in droves, and even a TikTok-ready midnight countdown complete with hand clapping and a club-ready drop. It’s fun and hooky and you are powerless to stop it.

For more: 3 Minutes ’Til New Years is a bonus track on the Snowman deluxe edition of Sia’s 2017 album Everyday Is Christmas

Lime Cordiale – Colin

For fans of: Colin Hay, Paul Simon, the Smiths

Although they tend to wade around in the pop end of the musical pool, Lime Cordiale have stretched this loosely defined genre in every possible direction over the past few years, peeling off gems that sound like Stone Roses classics one moment and collaborating on odd pop art with Idris Elba the next. Colin is another welcome and unexpected sidestep, an ode to Men at Work vocalist Colin Hay, who guest stars on the string-drenched tribute. Over a nimble, swinging beat and chorused-out guitar arpeggios last heard during Hay’s heyday, Lime Cordiale pay tribute to one of Australia’s most distinctive vocalists, though they stay well short of mimicry. Hay sticks strictly in the background for the first few minutes before taking his star turn in the final 30 seconds over a beautiful orchestral bed.

For more: Listen to singles Country Club and Facts of Life, both of which will appear on Lime Cordiale’s upcoming third record