Every New Zealand #1 single… 10 Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars Topped the NZ chart for 9 weeks from 22 December 2014. Mark Ronson Mark Ronson is the son of socialite, writer, and jewellery designer Ann Dexter-Jones. His stepfather is…
Can you link an image of a 1990s band to an iconic hit? I scored 21 Can you beat me? I thought it was the trickiest one so far. Not a lot of artists who I really care about…
Jessie Ware is the UK’s most likeable pop star. She’s charming where other mainstream acts leave me cold. Ware has a gorgeous voice, but she’s closer to Sade’s sophisticated poise than Celine Dion’s vocal histrionics. Ware’s dance-pop and blue-eyed soul…
The Blue Nile are famous for their lack of productivity. The Glasgow-based group were formed in 1981 and effectively broke up by 2006, and released a mere four albums during their quarter century tenure. Like many bands that emerged after…
It’s an unusually rocking week – the microtonal art rock of Angine de Poitrine and the punk of Joyce Manor Angine de Poitrine Vol.II 2026, 8/10If Geese were the breakout indie act of 2025, Quebecois math-rock duo are 2026’s newly…
The success of Rhino’s 1998 Nuggets boxset justified a follow-up. The sequel covers the rest of the world since the first volume only chronicled the USA. Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969 emerged in 2001.…
Can you link an image of a 1980s band to an iconic hit? I scored 19 Can you beat me and score the perfect 20? Congratulations to EclecticMusicLover, who has dominated this series. He beat Rich Kamerman by 3…
“These fingers of mine, they got brains in ’em. You don’t tell them what to do – they do it.” Jerry Lee Lewis Not every band features a keyboard player, so the talent pool is smaller than for other band…
The New Pornographers emerged in 2000, pooling talent from nationally successful Canadian bands like Zumpano, Destroyer, and Limblifter. While A.C. Newman is the group’s main creative force, the band spotlighted Neko Case’s warm, sumptuous voice and Dan Bejar’s offbeat songs…
Two albums inspired by darkness and turmoil this week. Courtney Marie Andrews reports that she wrote Valentine during “a dark period of the world”, while The New Pornographers’ music is also inspired by global chaos. The New Pornographers The Former…