Take 5

I'm excited to bring you this week's Take 5. Cos Gabrielle Zevin wrote one of my favourite books of the last year. The bestselling American author is behind 10 books, but her most recent has won huge acclaim. It's sat at the New York Times bestseller list for yonks, is being turned into a film, and has captured the imaginations of everyone who reads it.

"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" is the story of Sadie and Sam, two lifelong friends who bonded early over a love of video games. This book becomes an epic tale of love, creativity, competition, and tragedy. And it charts a history of gaming along the way.

Muses play a big part of this book, so I asked Gabrielle to share hers. And from Nirvana to Penguin Cafe Orchestra, this is a brilliant conversation by one of the best writers in the world today.

•    Penguin Café Orchestra — Perpetuum Mobile

•    Rilo Kiley — Let Me Back In

•    Nirvana — Lithium

•    Bright Eyes — Road to Joy

•    The Mountain Goats — This Year

Over the last two decades, Goldfrapp have delivered some of the coolest, smartest, and most exciting electro around. Out front, Alison Goldfrapp’s voice has tread the tightrope. A multi-octave phenomenon which lends itself to dark bassy tones as well as it does to floaty ethereal sounds.

But can you believe, she’s never made a solo record? Until now. On the day Alison released her debut album under her own name, she joined me to Take 5.

The record captures a club high, it reaches for love and bliss and so I gave her the theme “songs of euphoria”. I wanted to hear the music she’d been vibing off, or the songs that simple sent her into the clouds. From Italo-Disco to New York club classics, this is a blissful conversation about music’s power to elevate.

• Alexander Robotnick – Problemes’ D’Amour
• Tom Tom Club – Genius of Love
• Patrice Rushen – Haven’t You Heard
• Kaytranada – Be Careful (ft Thundercat)
• Lindstrom – Closing Shot

Colin Hay is the kind of guy you want to have a yarn with. He’s a master songwriter from his days in Men at Work, and the long solo career that has followed. Colin captures the world in a beautiful way. He’s also a recent recipient of the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian music, and came back to Australia to accept it.

While he was in the county, I asked him to Take 5. Because I knew he’d tell a good story or two, but I also wanted to know what were the songs of service to him? As someone who has honed their craft over more than 40 years, I wanted to hear him speak about music. From Booker T and the MG’s to Joni Mitchell to Leonard Cohen, this is a stunning conversation about song craft, life, and gratitude.

• Booker T & the MG’s – Green Onions 
• Bob Dylan – Gotta Serve Somebody 
• Joni Mitchell – Court & Spark 
• Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman 
• Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah 

It’s been a minute between albums for Cash Savage and the Last Drinks. But the Melbourne songwriter has returned with her band after five years, and with an album of intense feeling.

So This Is Love is a story of heartbreak, but also a celebration of love in all it’s forms, and how it changes, and can still be with you when people are gone.

This is a beautiful conversation with Cash. She shared so much, and also reminded me that, even when it hurts, love is always worth it. That feeling, the joy, the connection, and even the pain.

From Luther Vandross to Harmony to The Beach Boys, this is a deeply honest conversation with one of Australia’s best songwriters.

• Harmony - Love is a Chemical High 
• Luther Vandross - Never Too Much
• Courtney Marie Andrews - Near You 
• Big Smoke - Best Of You
• Beach Boys - God Only Knows

This is an extraordinary Take 5. There’s something a bit different about capturing an artist at a particular moment in their creative life. Not talking with me to promote an album or to spruik a tour… but in the midst of creating something new. And following a curiosity that will take them to this unknown end. This is where I found Jake Webb – better known as Methyl Ethel. The Fremantle based muso has made textured, leftfield pop for years now. And across four albums has shapeshifted what he does and how he thinks about sound.

For his Take 5, I gave Jake the theme of metamorphosis. And asked him to choose five songs that have marked chapters and change in his life. From The Supremes to Bjork to Deerhunter, this is deep conversation about art, and finding new ways every day to make something new.

• The Supremes - Keep Me Hangin’ On 
• The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl
• Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights
• Bjork - Hunter
• Deerhunter - Helicopter

You know you’re going to have a good time when Frenzal Rhomb join you for a chat. The Sydney punks have been making short, fast, and very funny songs for more than 30 years. And they just released their 10th album The Cup of Pestilence.

It once again captures the world around them; the micro to the macro. So when Jay and Lindsay joined me to Take 5 I asked them to pick songs from others that also captured the times. Big or small, who are the artists and the songs that mirror a moment for them? From The Meanies to Mo’Ju to Warren G, this Take 5 will have you cry laughing and getting more than you bargained for (in the best of ways).

• Discount – Clap And Cough
• The Meanies - Jekyll and Hyde
• Mo’Ju - Native Tongue
• Hard Ons - Hold Tight
• Warren G - Regulate

In 2017, a music book came out that had everyone talking. Meet Me in the Bathroom was an oral history capturing a definitive era in New York City indie music. At almost 600 pages long, everyone from Karen O to Julian Casablancas, James Murphy to Regina Spektor were part of it, and it instantly became a bestseller.

In the last year, the book has been adapted for screen; captured in a documentary that brings to life the early days of some of our most loved bands, and how it all began.

Lizzy Goodman is the author of this epic book, and Executive Producer of the film, and joined me to Take 5 with songs from the scene. From definitive early days with The Strokes, to the power of Karen O fronting Yeah Yeah Yeahs, this will catapult you into the noughties in the most beautiful of ways.

• Pixies – Debaser
• James – Laid 
• The Strokes – Barely Legal 
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Our Time 
• Interpol – PDA

Unknown Mortal Orchestra are one of my favourite bands. Ever since when I first heard Ffunny Friends, I was hooked. And also intrigued… their music is often a beautiful mystery, layered with hidden meanings and textures you unpick with every listen.

I remember listening to Multi-Love, then reading about the poly relationship that had inspired it, and the songs just cracked open. It’s a bit the same with their latest record. Cos while “V” sounds like a sprawling, nostalgic, and at times laidback album the story of it’s making is much denser.

Through a pandemic, lockdowns, burnout, and family illness, Ruban Nielson found his way back home. In more ways than one. And in asking him to Take 5 with the songs that shaped this new record, he helped us unpick his stories once more. From gorgeous Hawaiian slack-key guitar to Christopher Cross hits, this is a heartfelt insight into a songwriter’s heart.

• Kalama’s Quartet - ‘Iniki Mālie
• Bruddah Waltah - Hawaiian Lands
• George Helm - Waikiki 
• Christopher Cross - Ride Like the Wind
• Toto - Georgy Porgy

Mo’Ju is a shapeshifting artist. Over more than a decade, they’ve explored different sounds, stories and scenes… forever disrupting our expectations. Their new album is Oro, Plata, Mata. It’s a concept record based in cycles, and very much rooted in Mo’Ju’s sense of self and where they’re headed.

A week out from it’s release, Mo’Ju joined me to Take 5 and explore this new era.  Take 5 sings when my guest embraces the theme. And Mo’Ju did that, lacing in some extraordinary pieces of music with the fabric of where their head has been at, in making something new. From Tyler the Creator to Ngaiire to Nessun Dorma, this is an invitation into Mo’ju’s musical heart.

• Tyler The Creator - Igor’s Theme 
• Milan Ring - Keep Me Safe
• Giacomo Puccini (Pavarotti recording) - Nessun Dorma
• Ngaiire – Him
• Gabriel Garzón-Montano - The Game

If you know the music of Angel Olsen, you know she feels and communicates emotion deeply. Across six albums, we’ve heard her lay it all on the line. Or at least, we thought we had. Big Time is Angel’s most raw and personal record to date. And with good reason. It was recorded in a time of great love, grief, and change for Angel. At 34, she met a new partner and came out as queer to her parents. Days later, her father died. A few weeks later, her mother also passed. Three weeks after that funeral, Angel Olsen went in to record Big Time.

Five years ago, Angel joined me to Take 5 with songs that kept her grounded. This time, we met with a world of change between us. And with that gamut of emotion, and the very stripped back sounds of her new record, I wanted to hear songs that for her captured the full spectrum. From Chris Bell to Laurie Anderson to John Cale, this is a gorgeous meditation on what it means to be human.

• Beverly Glenn-Copeland - La Vita
• Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos 
• Brian Eno - The Big Ship
• Laurie Anderson - Coolsville 
• John Cale - Andalucia