Essential Nz Albums

Goodshirt combined classic pop influences with a D.I.Y sensibility learned from Chris Knox, to make one of the essential New Zealand albums of the early 2000s. Nick Bollinger discusses Goodshirt's… Audio

When the single 'Like Water' hit the New Zealand top ten in early 2011 it established Ladi6 as this country's major R&B star. But that success was just one milestone in a long journey, and the song… Audio

Buffalo was the album that lifted the profile of Wellington band The Phoenix Foundation both here and internationally. It saw their collective approach reach new heights - in the sophistication of the… Audio

Recorded in London in 1969, these recordings provided classic material for Kiwi rockers The Human Instinct yet the originals remained largely unheard until their discovery and release in 2012. Nick… Audio

If it were Bic Runga's goal, as she once suggested, to make music that would "alter the listener's mind in some way" she achieved it with this record more than any other. Birds is an album with a… Audio

Hip-hop is a musical form invented by African Americans, and yet here is a version that could only have come from deep in the Pacific. It has a proud sense of place and yet it looks outward. To quote… Audio

At a time when few New Zealanders seemed to be singing about themselves, The Front Lawn turned the Hutt Valley and Takapuna Beach into musical landmarks. A forerunner of Flight of the Conchords, they… Audio

The 80s club scene gave birth to the sound that Ardijah's founder Ryan Monga calls Polyfonk. After a long incubation in the South Auckland club scene, the group burst forth with that sound on their… Audio

Auckland-raised singer-songwriter Renee-Louise Carafice wrote and recorded her debut album after a spell of clinical depression, and yet it remains an uplifting, even beautiful piece of work. In this… Audio

'The new rock - bittersweet and low' proclaimed a Time magazine cover in 1971, heralding the arrival of a new wave of acoustic-based music centred on the likes of Crosby, Stills and Nash and James… Audio

The 2005 studio debut of the Wellington-based soul-reggae collective Fat Freddy's Drop became the year's second-biggest selling album in their homeland and established their worldwide reputation In… Audio

In the late-70s landscape of mainstream New Zealand pop, Sharon O'Neill stood out not only for her pure powerful voice and piano skills but also for a swag of sophisticated self-penned songs. All of… Audio

On his 2018 album Avantdale Bowling Cup,  Auckland rapper Tom Scott blends powerful, polyrhythmic rhymes with fine jazz and a strong sense of place. Video, Audio