Live Review: Music To Isolate To: The Naked and Famous

21 May 2020 | 4:14 pm | Emma Jones

Not many bands can say they defined a generation, but The Naked and Famous can. They're the latest to take over our #MusicToIsolateTo playlist.

With the ongoing and ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a crazy world out there right now, so it’s never been more important to band together. Self-isolation and social distancing are two of the most effective tools we have as a society to help fight COVID-19, but they’re also very difficult to undertake and they have very real, long-lasting consequences on the music and arts industries — some of which we aren’t even aware of yet. Our artists and our industry are already feeling the ripple effect, and things are only going to get worse before they get better.

Because of this, it’s up to us to use what we’ve got at our disposal to best represent and amplify our community and continue to tell artists’ stories. Purple Sneakers has always fiercely represented Australian music and our team are some of the best writers in the country, so we’re going to use our platform to continue doing what we do best: connect our community with the artists we love, and support artists by promoting their incredible music.

Music To Isolate To is an ongoing artist-curated playlist series by Purple Sneakers. We’ve asked some of our favourite artists ever to provide us with the ten songs they’re listening to while in isolation, and provide some commentary for their selections. We’ll be running these for the foreseeable future every Monday and Thursday, and you can follow the Spotify playlist which will be updated on these days right HERE. The idea is to not only promote artists who are curating the playlists, but to also promote those songs that mean a lot to them whether they be longtime classics or fresh new releases.

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The next in our Music To Isolate To series is THE NAKED AND FAMOUS. Not many bands can say they defined the sound of a generation, but The Naked and Famous can. With their breakout smashes 'Young Blood' and 'Punching In A Dream', they defined the turn-of-the-decade sound in 2010, paving the way for incendiary synth-pop bands all over the world. Fast forward ten years and three albums later and they're back, better than ever and set to do it all again with their forthcoming fourth album, Recover. We've been gifted three singles from this record so far, and all of them prove this band is entering a renaissance period, offering up some of the finest indie pop we've heard this year. From the absolute anthem, 'Bury Us' to our very first taste, 'Sunseeker', Recover is shaping up to be one of this year's most exciting records. Their latest single, 'Come As You Are', is a call to arms for all the weirdos, misfits and oddballs in us all — we're all good just as we are.

From homegrown heroes like Mallrat and E^ST to alt-pop juggernauts like Caroline Polachek and Christine and The Queens, one half of the band, Alisa Xayalith, takes us through a mixed bag of her go-to iso anthems. Take a listen below!

Talk Deep - E^ST

I chose this song because it’s fun dance track and i feel like it’s a plea about wanting to hang out and connect with someone on a deeper level beyond something ordinary and superficial.

Cool For A Second - Yumi Zouma

Indie darlings hailing from New Zealand create the kind of dream pop that I like listening to. I think right now, this song is gonna make you feel ‘cool for a second’ before dipping out and reading the news.

Groceries - Mallrat

Big fans of Mallrat in the TNAF camp over here. We wanted to cover her for our Triple J segment but someone else beat us to it!

People, I’ve Been Sad - Christine and the Queens

While we were in Australia on our very short-lived run for the Wine Machine Festival, we blasted ‘People I’ve been sad’ by Christine and the Queens screaming ‘I know the feeling, I know the feeling!’ and we are definitely sad now that we can’t play anymore shows for the time being.

Look At Me Mow - Caroline Polachek

Thom and I both love Caroline Polachek and the time signature on this lonesome ballad.

Mended, Acoustic - Vera Blue

Long time fan of Vera Blue’s music and this acoustic rendition of her song ‘Mended’ pitch perfect and a song I'll never get tired of. I wish I could hear an album of her songs done this way. I love it when artists do that.

Practice - Luna Shadows

‘Love is just practice, we’ll keep working at it.’ I love how self aware this lyric is and I think it’s something that the world needs to do right now.

Chateau - Angus and Julia Stone

I went on a trip to New York at the end of 2018 to work with Simon Oscroft and Dan Gibson to write some songs. It was snowing and the studio we were working in was freezing too and one of the boys played this song for me while we were trying to get warm drinking whisky. I’ve only been to the Chateau Marmont once since.

Broods - Life After

‘I’ve been waiting for you, since the day you were born’ Wouldn’t that be a nice fantasy knowing that when we left this earth, we’d be greeted by everyone who ever loved you at the gates? I like that fantasy a lot.

The world is flat and this is the edge// - Kenny Hoopla

Kenny Hoopla is an artist who was introduced to both Thom and I via our creative director and we were instant fans. His most recent release was created with our friends Now Now, take a listen and we hope you become long time fans of his music too.

Introduction by Emma Jones

Image: Supplied

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