Best Australian and New Zealand Music of the Week: BOY SODA, WHO SHOT SCOTT, Inertia and More

Great tracks, terrible title: welcome to WHO SHOT SCOTT’s highly anticipated debut album.

The electrifying collection is worth the wait, the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland rapper and artist effortlessly moving between alt-rock and hip-hop at will.

HAIRY follows a hugely successful debut headline tour of the UK for WHO SHOT SCOTT, including an appearance at The Great Escape 2026.

Gracie Moller’s second EP is here.

The EP is filled with bright and sparkly pop, capturing what it feels like to fall in and out of love in your early 20s.

Clashing Teeth is the modern, accomplished pop record Moller has been carefully building towards over the past few years.

The Pretty Littles follow up  a national tour with Bad//Dreems with new album Mulga Wire.

It’s the swift follow-up to 2025’s ARIA-charting Force, and Mulga Wire might be that record’s equal.

“Mulga Wire sorta encompasses everything we are, I reckon,” vocalist Jack Parsons says. “We just followed our nose. If it worked, we followed it down the lane. If it didn’t we left it there. There was no time to fuck around really.”

“I guess this album reminds me of a city, with different suburbs – different moments. It’s all in the same city, but you know when you’re in Heidelberg and you know when you’re in Hampton, ya know?”

Asha Jefferies previews new album Desire Is an Angel with a stunning new single.

The soaring “Art of Suggestion” is set to be one of the Australian singer-songwriter’s most classically pop moments on the record, Jefferies pondering the imaginative potential of desire.

“I wrote ‘Art of Suggestion’ about being swept away by the undertow of desire,” she explains. “Before confirmation is revealed and you know someone is interested in you, there is a heavy, electrifying drive to project your desires onto them. Daydreaming has taught me that sometimes, the exhilaration of seduction is less about contact and more about the unknown.”

Georgia Lines is revisiting one of the biggest nights of her career so far with the release of Live at the Civic.

The new album is out via Bandcamp.

It captures Lines’ headline performance at Auckland’s Civic Theatre during the Auckland Live Cabaret Festival on Sunday, June 15th, 2025. The 10-track collection features cuts from across her catalogue, backed by new arrangements and musicians from the Auckland Philharmonia.

“This show was one of the most special nights of my career so far, and I know it’ll forever be one that I look back on with so much pride,” Lines says. “To stand on the stage at The Civic surrounded by incredible musicians and some of my favourite people, and play these songs to a room full of people who were so deeply with us every moment of the show, was something I’ll never forget.”

It’s “break up season”, says Yorke.

The exciting Australian pop artist returns with her bold new single, with the song receiving its first play on triple j.

“Breakups are inevitable, so you might as well make them fun to listen to,” Yorke says. “The song was written after my friend was spilling the tea on some break ups that had happened in our inner circles since I’d last seen her, and some of them were a bit scandalous.

“She made a comment about it being ‘break up season’ and I jokingly said that I hoped I’m not next… I walked into the studio knowing exactly what I wanted. It’s rare that I start with a song title, so it was fun to start with that and work backwards. We wrote the song a few hours after that.”

Eliza Hull’s first official new music in three years is finally here.

The Castlemaine-based singer-songwriter returns with her “most unguarded” single yet, written during a personal breakdown while she was alone in a London hotel room.

“Hotel Room” follows Hull receiving an O.A.M. last month for her contribution to music and disability advocacy.

Beth Torrance previews new EP Your Favourite with rocking new single “Suzy May”.

The Aotearoa singer-songwriter’s track is grittier and more expansive than some of their previous intimate indie-folk releases, proving Torrance is ably adept at both styles.

Your Favourite arrives next month on July 24th.

Paige’s first single of the year is more than worth the wait.

The cool and confident “the way you are” is the highly anticipated follow-up to her all-conquering 2025 EP paigesspace, which helped Paige to an Aotearoa Music Awards nomination (Single of the Year for “twenties”).

Her lush new single is an “unapologetic breakup song” co-written by Paige and Harry Charles (ratbag, Tate McRae).

Radio Free Alice release a new single shortly after featuring in our Future of Music 2026 series.

“Lunch Money” is the Melbourne post-punk band’s debut release on Atlantic Records (out via Warner Music Australia locally), and arrived ahead of their Governor’s Ball Festival appearance in New York City this weekend.

Frontman Noah Learmonth shares, “‘Lunch Money’ came together last year in a soundcheck in Nottingham while on tour in the UK. It was the back-end of the tour and it had started getting really cold.

“I remember us writing it on the stage at the empty venue, all with jackets, scarves and gloves on. It was one of those songs that came together pretty instantly.”

Melbourne-by-way-of-Sydney band Zipper keep getting better.

New single “Ear” is dreamy and atmospheric post-punk at its finest, effortlessly moving at its own pace. Lead singer Haruka Sato’s vocals are a particular highlight, floating invitingly through the thick sonic fog.

“Ear” follows the equally excellent “Hiko”, their first release of the year.

TiMMY the First is ready to make his mark in Aotearoa hip-hop.

The Zimbabwean-born, New Zealand-based artist opens up to the world on new single “Air”, which pleasingly blends Afropop and hip-hop together.

“This song captures the heart of who I am as an artist,” he explains. “My music has always been about telling honest stories and creating from a place of purpose. I’m drawn to songs that explore identity, belonging, and the courage it takes to follow your own path.”

When you get The Bats legend Robert Scott to guest on your song, you know you’re doing something right.

Scott provides backing vocals to the new single from Bunchy’s Big Score, yet another exciting young band coming out of Ōtautahi Dunedin.

“I Don’t Wanna Dance” is the final taste of Bunchy’s Big Score’s new album, out soon. Check back on Rolling Stone AU/NZ soon to hear more about the band.