Intel: 21 Jan 2019

New music from G Flip, Maggie Rogers, and someone called Ariana

G Flip, sitting on a porch of some description

Back again for another IDOLTHREAT Intel —here’s what you need to be across in new music this week:

⚡ Priorities

• If you’re looking to champion Australian music in 2019, this is where you start. G Flip opens her brilliant new song by admitting she has a crush on Instagram influencer and face of Bondi Sands, Steph Claire Smith.
  (Just putting this in the article because I know there’s people who search her name online.)

• PEKING DUK AND JACK RIVER!! TOGETHER! Jack River’s vocal is flawless, and Peking Duk’s production is bang on. And can we appreciate that single artwork? Is it a photo of Len? New Radicals? No, it’s actually two very good Australian acts in 2019!

• Do you need me to tell you the new Ariana Grande release is massive?
  No, you don’t. Here it is again.

The story behind it is just exactly what you’d hope for.

• The new Dean Lewis song is three times better than Be Alright was. This means we have to make it three times bigger than Be Alright was.

• The Maggie Rogers album is out. Thank God. Burning is a stand-out.

• Call Me Loop is an early entrant for Pop Star Cover Photo Aesthetic Of The Year thanks to, to be honest, what looks like a Nickelodeon shoot. It almost vocally sounds like a Kate Nash song. Silly Boy has a perfect chorus.

• Everyone ignored LOVA’s last single, You Me And The Silence. To make it up to her, you can listen to this, which recounts things which her name isn’t. Her name isn’t Banana but she’s only opted to list relatable names like “baby” or “honey” which is a strong songwriting decision.

• Don’t Call Me Up takes a moment to get going — specifically, 46 seconds, if you’re watching the video below — but then, just as you’re on the verge of skipping to the next song BANG HERE YOU GO HAVE A CHORUS.
  Also, it has a music video, not just a lyric video! Thank you Mabel!

• Dodie has a new song out! She is properly captivating live, so if you get the chance to see her, do whatever you need to do. Monster sounds like it’s off the Moana soundtrack. The song says the word bitch so it’s definitely not off the Moana soundtrack.

🤷‍♀️ YMMV

• You & Me by James TW is not especially imaginative, but it is cute and it will get stuck in your head. Is it 2019’s Hurt Somebody? 🤔

• Calculated by Sally is a solid 6.5/10. I’d link to the YouTube video, but there are six different YouTube videos, each lasting for somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds. Here is one of them.

• We have some more songs from the Australian Eurovision hopefuls to go alongside Courtney Act’s competent song; Electric Fields’ 2000 And Whatever actually left me in tears the first time I heard it, and wildcard Leea Nanos’s Set Me Free is a close second. Aydan Calafiore’s Dust is fine. Mark Vincent’s song won’t clear a semi final.
• YUNGBLUD is doing YUNGBLUD things again. It’s classic Britpop but made for 2019, and if that’s not reason enough to give it a listen, in this one he sings that he’d rather be a martyr than grow tomatoes, which you have to sing in his accent to rhyme. Bloody yes.

• If Gossip Girl still existed, do you reckon they’d bung Terror Jr’s Pretty on the soundtrack?

• The Cub Sport album is out! Come Out is my pick off the album, but the whole thing is really a listening experience. Just about every Aussie LGBTI person I’ve spoken to over the past few days has been listening to this album.

• Phone Call by Two People is the least Googleable song/artist combo of the year. Try it.

Here ends this week’s IDOLTHREAT Intel. We’re thinking of doing this every Monday morning, or at least, every second Monday morning. Was it any good? Let us know!
You can hear the best in new music on our Spotify playlist.