Mix Tape 40
Plenty of awesome new selections in Mix Tape 40, give it a spin…
Australian pop icons Bachelor Girl return with a bold new take on their 1998 hit, Treat Me Good, teaming up with beloved powerhouse vocalist Jessica Mauboy for the release, out now. Originally unleashed on the duo’s debut album, Waiting for the Day, this mammoth new version is the first taste of the band’s anticipated forthcoming redux album that will feature an epic haul of acclaimed household name artists who bring their prowess to the reimagining of the tracks.
Slated for a June release, Waiting For The Day: Artist Sessions is a complete reinterpretation of the double Platinum album that captivated the world. “We (somewhat audaciously!) began to ask some of our favourite Aussie artists and friends if they would lend their voices and/or instrument to our bucket list project,” beams Tania Doko. “What started with one, became 13 artists on this 15 track Redux album, and we could not be more chuffed they enthusiastically said yes.”
ARIA-nominated Australian singer-songwriter, Kita Alexander has released the latest track The Good House, from her highly anticipated sophomore album RAGE, set for release on June 26, 2026 via Warner Music Australia.
Speaking on the new track, Kita shares, “No one ever knows what’s going inside someone’s body, someone’s house” Kita continues, “The Good House is about our perceptions of each other and how the majority of time, everyone is putting up this front of being put together and having their lives sorted. At the end of the day it’s understanding that not everything’s as it appears.”
Last month, Kita released Rage, the lead single and title track from the upcoming album. RAGE, the album, traces an intimate story of Kita’s personal journey with rage. “Rage has been the catalyst of positive change in my life over the last couple of years. The album is about an emotion I’ve always had but never understood. It’s me looking at it and embracing it as a new friend and realising that I don’t have to shut it down or avoid looking at it.”
Kita continues, “An emotion that is usually seen as ugly or wrong has helped me have the confidence to create necessary change in my life that I was otherwise scared of doing. Rage has helped me find what truly matters to me and to change my life in ways that work for me.”
One of the most kinetic and boundary-warping female R&B/ rap artists of this generation, Tkay Maidza, returns with her first official solo release since her lauded 2023 album Sweet Justice with the incendiary Must Be – released via released via Dew Process / Universal Music Australia.
With icy, staccato production courtesy of Maths Time Joy (Mahalia) and The Idiot Must Be detonates on impact: four gunshots crack before the track snaps into something violently cartoonish, like Tank Girl tearing through a Björk-shaped landscape. It arrives after a period of recalibration – Sweet Justice securing the 2024 ARIA Award for Best R&B Soul Release, followed by standout turns on Adekunle Gold’s ‘Attack’ and her Spotify Singles rework of ‘Electric Feel’.
At Tkay Maidza’s most confrontational and self-possessed, the Zimbabwe-born, Australia-raised artist bends instinct into precision on Must Be – less a display of range than a statement of intent.
Marking the start of a new era, Tkay steps into independence on her own terms. Now based in Los Angeles, she shifts gears with intention, choosing herself over the noise as a form of retribution. “People shouldn’t count me out or underestimate my abilities. They should be afraid when I’m quiet, as I come back more evolved,” she says. That pursuit feels less like momentum than precision – balancing chaos and clarity, intuition and design. What emerges is beyond reinvention. It’s alignment: a world pulled into focus, edges sharpened until nothing feels accidental.
DICE kick off 2026 with the release of their new single and music video COOLER, a blissful and expansive track that marks an evolution in the band’s sound.
Recorded at the legendary EastWest Studios in Los Angeles alongside 11-time Grammy-winning producer Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes, The White Stripes), the track blends DICE’s raw garage-rock energy with a lighter, more refined pop-rock sensibility.
Perfect for road trips with the windows wound down, the band invited multi-instrumentalist Jay Watson (POND, Tame Impala, GUM) to contribute shimmering keys and melodic depth.
Melbourne guitarist, singer and songwriter Kathleen Halloran steps forward with fierce new single Wolves Like You, a powerful rock statement that marks a defining moment in her evolution as a solo artist. The release arrives alongside the announcement of her long-awaited debut album Nobody’s Baby, set for release on Friday May 8, produced by Roscoe James Irwin (The Cat Empire, The Bamboos, Paul Kelly) and engineered/mixed by Ben Edgar (Gotye, Angus and Julia Stone).
After fifteen years performing on stages and in studios across Australia, Halloran channels her experience into a track that celebrates resilience, individuality and the quiet strength of women forging their own path in a traditionally male-dominated space. Co-written with Adelaide-based producer and musician Dustyn Lee Stephensen, Wolves Like You is ultimately about staying true to the music, and to yourself.
A passionate, rock-forward statement piece, Wolves Like You stands as a fierce declaration of strength and self-belief. The track leans into Halloran’s signature duality, guitar firepower balanced with emotional depth. Gritty yet controlled, primal yet deliberate, the song captures an artist fully embracing her strengths.
Marking a significant moment in her career, Halloran reflects on a shifting perspective shaped by years in the industry: “Wolves Like You is about the resilience, defiance, and quiet power of women in the music industry. I’ve been playing guitar professionally for 15 years, and for most of that time I rejected the idea of being defined by gender or even allowing it into the conversation. Comments like ‘I’ve never heard a girl play like that’ were often well-meaning, but complicated. Something has shifted for me. I’ve realised people feel compelled to speak up because what they’re witnessing is powerful, and I’m really proud of that.”
Breakthrough alternative star ratbag shares her first new music of 2026, how to cry, alongside a self-directed music video. This follows a busy 2025 for ratbag which saw her join Magdalena Bay on their world tour, grace the cover of NME and be named as one of Rolling Stone’s 2025 Pop Acts to Watch.
The inventive video for how to cry finds ratbag turning her illustrations into music: when she hand-draws the foreboding drum line, eerie strings and each other facet of the song’s instrumentation, they are fed into a haphazard studio set-up she is mysteriously hooked up to inside a cave. With how to cry ratbag pushes her creativity to new levels, proving herself to be a unique artist who needs to be seen to be believed.
ratbag shares: “The song is about needing to cry so badly but feeling so numb that you can’t. You pass a point where you can’t even draw tears anymore. But then you meet that one person who does the complete opposite and breaks that wall down right in front of you. You cry just by looking into their eyes.”
Multi-award-winning acclaimed songwriter, producer, and performer from South Australia, trials (aka Daniel Hendle Rankine) unleashes the new single whistle while i walk and an additional track ‘pollywaffle’ out today, offering us another glimpse into his debut solo album hendle out May 1.
Sharing a deeper part of myself to any audience, on or off stage sometimes makes me feel like I’m jumping out of a moving a car, but every single unknown and all the firsts I’ve put behind me in the past few weeks… and messages that I’ve received and the reactions I’ve been given every time remind me that if it means something to me, then it’s more than enough,” trials shares chronicling his tour adventures here.
whistle while i walk is deceptively light with its infectious rhythmic melody that lives long after you have listened, as trials dissects the push–pull between self-responsibility and religious ideology. Built from his sobriety journey; ownership, reflection, relapse-tested resolve, this is intimate storytelling over strong beats, with warm guitars, bass, keys and live drums, accompanied with a lyric performance video clip.
“It is a feel good song inspired by feeling like shit,” trials shares. “What might sound like a commentary on peoples choice to accept God instead of responsibility is actually that but from my own personal experience with it. In Wales I found myself at Sunday School listening to tales of turn the other cheek with the very kids who would put fists to mine and in Australia I constantly saw it as means to an end to say the quiet part out loud of a larger issue, usually discriminatory. The big resolve and reason for the beautiful music is that overcoming my own huge problems in life which has led me to almost 7 years of sobriety, a consistently hard worker and inspiration for my children is doing it by whistling away, taking ownership and speaking to the same person either way.”
With just three dates remaining on their 12-stop regional Australian Tour, beloved indie-rock duo Old Mervs unveil their new single Heavy In The Morning (Dew Process/Universal Music). Capturing the loose, carefree energy that sparked its creation, Heavy In The Morning was written during what David House describes as “one of those fun off the cuff, see what we can come up kind of days” and feels refreshingly new and unmistakably Old Mervs.
With a nod to nostalgia and an eye on the stage, Old Mervs set out to craft something that would quickly become a live favourite. Henry Carrington-Jones adds, “we went for a surf and got lucky with waves in the morning and the funniest day carried on to one of the funnier songs to write and record. As we were recording, we couldn’t help but think about playing it to people soon and enjoying a singalong!.”
The Kojonup WA born and raised duo have already been warming up the new single on tour to great reception. Written in Injidup in South West WA, Heavy In The Morning sees Old Mervs reunite with ARIA award- winning producer Chris Collins (Royel Otis, Matt Corby, Ruby Fields), the collaborator behind their #1 self titled debut. The breakout album stormed to #4 on the overall ARIA Album Chart and delivered a run of fan favourites including What You’ve Lost, Parched, Don’t Go, and Everyone Will See It. Heavy In The Morning builds on that momentum, pairing the band’s coastal roots with the sharp, anthemic sound that’s quickly become their calling card.
Heavy In The Morning arrives with a nostalgic -inspired music video clip directed and produced by Perth based videographer Andrew Briggs, the mastermind behind the visual world for Old Mervs. “The video idea originally came from wanting to highlight small Wheatbelt town called Bolgart. We filmed it on a 38 degree summer day. I was inspired by greats like Ansel Adams, Helmut Newton and Cartier-Bresson and their use of black and white photography and natural light. Henry, Dave and I connect over growing up in small towns, and the video is really about returning to those places as adults and finding beauty in distinctly Australian things we probably once thought were mundane as kids.”
Fresh off a run of sold-out dates on his debut headline tour, Australian indie-folk riser Fletcher Kent returns with powerful new single Don’t You Want It.
With a sound that sits comfortably alongside artists like Noah Kahan, Briston Maroney, Matt Corby, Dean Lewis and Lewis Capaldi, Fletcher continues to cement himself as one of Australia’s most exciting emerging voices, pairing authentic, heart-on-sleeve lyricism with undeniable raw talent.
Speaking on the release, Fletcher shares: “Anything in life worth having comes with challenge, whether that’s relationships, a dream, anything. ‘Don’t You Want It’ begs the question: how much are you willing to sacrifice for the thing you want? You might get your heart broken, you might fall or face difficult moments, but is it worth it?”
Emotionally charged and anthemic, the track captures the ache and urgency of chasing something bigger than yourself, even when the cost feels high. Vulnerable yet defiant, it balances intimate storytelling with a chorus built to be sung back at full volume.
2 x GRAMMY®-nominated, multi-platinum superstar Noah Kahan unveils his latest single, Porch Light, the newest offering from his highly anticipated fourth studio album, The Great Divide, arriving April 24 via Mercury Records. The song was written by Kahan alongside GRAMMY®-winning producer Aaron Dessner (Taylor Swift, Bon Iver) during their first-ever session together, and produced by Kahan, Dessner, and acclaimed producer and Stick Season collaborator Gabe Simon (Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey, Koe Wetzel). It was recorded between Dessner’s famed Long Pond Studio in Hudson, NY and Gold Pacific Studios in
Nashville.
Porch Light is inspired by the emotional weight Kahan believes he placed on his family by opening up their lives throughout his creative narrative and lyrical storytelling on Stick Season. The track finds the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter adopting his mother’s perspective as he sings, “I hope you tell me that you’re winding down / That you’ve lost the taste to face the crowd / That whatever made you famous made you sick / That you can only do what pain allows/ It ain’t up to you to make it out / And there ain’t no shame in callin’ this thing quits.”
““Cruel World” comes from the euphoria and pain of long-distance. Your perception of the world around you can be completely distorted without that one person in it. There’s no fun in going out solo when the only place you want to be is wherever they are. Loving someone that much is always going to hurt a little. This is the dichotomy of pain and pleasure. Love is so painful at its core and this is the throughline of my record. This is my favourite song I’ve ever written!” – Holly Humberstone
Holly Humberstone shares the title track from her highly anticipated second album Cruel World, to be released on 10 April 2026. The song captures the emotional centre of the record, the dichotomy between pain and pleasure, and addresses the euphoria and pain of long-distance love. Directed by Silken Weinberg (Ethel Cain), the video takes place on a Victorian theatre set, following Holly as she quietly attempts to sabotage the unfolding production. The release follows a huge start to 2026 for Holly, who has just completed her European headline tour, performed recent single To Love Somebody on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and attended both London and Paris Fashion Week as her creative world continues to expand beyond music
Fresh off the back of taking out five places in the triple j Hottest 100 of 2025, Spacey Jane deliver new single and video Do You Really Love Her, a confident step forward that builds on their unstoppable momentum.
Written on Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills, the track leans into a bigger, more expansive sound. Punchy drums and lush and prominent synths, give the song a wide screen feel.
Spacey Jane says, “”Do You Really Love Her” was born out of the “If That Makes Sense” writing sessions. For some reason the song didn’t feel like the right fit for the album, but we always wanted it to see the light of day. Written with Sarah Aarons and Joel Little then taken to John Hill for production, we referenced lush 80’s pub rock in the studio. Australian bands like INXS, The Church and Icehouse are both nostalgic and inspirational to us. It’s part fiction, part reality. A dream about being stood up by your date only to see them on a movie screen and the experience of yearning for a connection and losing someone to time, distance or another life. This release and the others to follow are almost experiments. Songs we love that didn’t end up on an album. Something we want to share while we take stock and reset.”
Watch out: Scene Queen is back and she’s back with a bad bitch anthem for the ages. Put up your cat claws, because the pretty in pink superstar is packing a punch of sass, while simultaneously seething with rage against…men. The Queen’s signature Bimbocore sound is heard loud and clear on her latest track, Manicure, and it’s marking her territory in the metal scene in a big way. Along with the song, Scene Queen is premiering a new music video for Manicure that fights back against the patriarchy with vengeance Scene Queen-style.
“The song Manicure is one of many songs from a new era where I really went back to my roots. I got into the studio with as few people as possible and thought “if I could make Bimbocore again, knowing what I know now musically and personally, what would be different?” As much as I love the humour and pop sensibilities of Bimbocore, and plan on keeping those going, I realised I’d make the heavier parts even more jarring and rage filled. Thus, my angry song for long nailed divas was born. The idea came from a conversation I had in a bar in Nashville months ago with Joey where the song Goodbye Earl by The Chicks came on and he challenged me to write it from my metal perspective. So story wise, it follows a similar idea, if you could save your friend from a terrible man, wouldn’t you? It’s also very self aware in the sense of saying, yes I am beating up a man AGAIN in a song but it’s because they keep doing awful things.”
GRAMMY®-nominated band, OneRepublic, returns with their new single Need Your Love out via BMG.
Produced by 3x GRAMMY® award winning writer and producer, Ryan Tedder and co-written alongside James Essien, the track is an uplifting, emotionally charged anthem that highlights the importance of love over materialistic pursuits. The soaring melodies were first teased during select live performances in 2025 and also previewed to Australian fans during their east coast shows in February of this year, quickly becoming a highly anticipated release.
Alongside the single comes a captivating music video that brings the song to life. Set against the industrial backdrop of a dimly lit warehouse, the visual captures the band in their element, performing with an authenticity that illuminates the track’s message of love.
Adding to the momentum, last week the band unveiled Dreaming Out Loud (Deluxe Edition), their Gold-certified full-length debut album on Vinyl for the first time ever. This special release not only celebrates the project that launched OneRepublic onto the global stage, but also features unreleased material, offering a fresh perspective on a defining era in the band’s career.
Earlier this year, Dry Cleaning, “the most important British guitar band of their generation,” (Uncut) released their new album, Secret Love. The beloved band of vocalist Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, drummer Nick Buxton and bassist Lewis Maynard’s third album received glowing Album of the Week/Month accolades from the likes of The Sunday Times, The Observer, Record Collector, The Guardian, MOJO, and more, with the latter’s 5* critique calling the album, “a surrealist masterpiece.”
Ahead of the band’s extensive tour kicking off next month, they release the new single, Sliced By a Fingernail. With a backdrop of the band’s rich soundscape of early 80s US punk and hardcore coupled with stoner rock and motorik grooves, Shaw provides abstract lyrics partly about someone who hates attention.
She comments: “A lot of attention makes them feel sliced up. So they fantasise about being hidden inside a huge flower bud and about being anonymous in a crowd at night. The image of a brown mark from a finger nail pressed into a petal inspired some of the lyrics. I thought about peony buds not opening and then browning, and their tightness. The lyrics were also inspired by illustrator Jooyoung Kim’s picture book about a dog who has a long body, called ‘Welcome to My Life’.
Following their sold-out debut Australian tour, and ahead of their Coachella debut, Brighton’s own Lambrini Girls, the explosive duo of Phoebe Lunny (vocals/guitar) and Selin Macieira (bass), share their new single Cult of Celebrity.
From its opening guitar lick, the duo’s new song is a relentless, thrashing indictment of the dark underbelly and backdoor dealings of the world’s global elites that have been exposed in recent years. Speaking about their new single, the Lambrini Girls had this to say:
“The age-old tale of selling your soul to the devil has been a fabled account of high society for years. However, due to recent events coming to light, it turns out that the elite are very much actually, the devil incarnate, baby-eating, pedos. What a fucking surprise! They had no souls to sell in the first place.”
British alternative rock mainstays Basement have shared another new track off their anticipated new album WIRED. The Way I Feel leans into producer John Congleton’s lively, unpolished production style and features an anthemic chorus – sonically transporting you to a joyous, sweaty venue floor. WIRED, out May 8th, marks Basement’s first new album in eight years as well as a reunion with their original label Run For Cover Records.
About the song, vocalist Andrew Fisher says, “‘The Way I Feel’ is about standing on the edge of a really important decision, right before you make it. Constantly questioning whether you have the courage to stand up for yourself and fight your side, while at the same time begging for forgiveness and acknowledgement. My tongue is in my cheek quite a lot in this song – you need to decide when I’m saying what I mean or not. I love the simplicity of this song and I love that the intro is the same audio sample that Al made on his loop pedal. I knew from the first time he sent that audio file that this would be a song.”
Mt. Joy return with their new single Is Joy Easy, a deeply introspective and emotionally expansive track that reframes the way we think about joy. Structured in two parts, the song moves between the anticipation that fuels anxiety and the fleeting but powerful experience of living fully in the moment, capturing the fragile space between fear and release.
Born out of a mantra intended to combat chronic anxiety, What if you’re great?, Is Joy Easy evolves that idea into something more urgent. In a period marked by personal loss and a long battle with depression, frontman Matt Quinn began asking a different question: What if joy is easy? Not something to chase, but something that exists all around us, a quiet, constant possibility that lives just beyond our fears. The result is one of Mt. Joy’s most vulnerable and thought-provoking songs to date, offering listeners both comfort and confrontation in equal measure.
Of the song, songwriter and singer Matt Quinn says, “In what’s been a very difficult winter for me personally, through loss and a long battle with depression, this song arose as an attempt to use that mantra in a different way: What if joy is easy? What if it happens all the time? Less a destination and more the privilege to be then and there. The part right after the sweaty palms. Maybe it’s BS – but it brought us this song. Hope it brings some joy, the world could use it.”
One of Australia’s most exciting rising forces in rap, YNG Martyr returns with his highly anticipated sophomore album CHALANT, alongside the chaotic, high-energy official video for BODYCOUNT (FEAT. 1900 Rugrat).
Marking a defining new chapter, the album sees YNG Martyr step away from the detached cool that often dominates hip-hop, instead inviting listeners directly into his world – unfiltered, playful, and unapologetically himself.
“CHALANT is about owning the things I grew up on and not filtering myself to fit into what rap is ‘supposed’ to be. It pulls from gaming, internet culture, and everything that shaped me, but pushes it into something that still hits hard in a modern context.”
Record-breaking, platinum-selling rock band The Pretty Reckless have released the official music video for their high-octane new single When I Wake Up.
Directed by Taylor Momsen & Chris Acosta, the edgy, POV-style video captures the chaotic energy of a night-out with frontwoman Taylor Momsen and friends, giving the audience a first-person perspective through the blur of a wild bender as the night descends into true rock-and-roll debauchery. Adding to the chaos, the visual features a few familiar faces and sees Taylor reunite with Gossip Girl costars Jessica Szohr and Connor Paolo, alongside rock legends Pat Smear and Ilan Rubin from The Foo Fighters.
Of the video, Taylor said, “l wanted the video to reflect where the song came from – a time in my life when I was out of control, not caring whether I lived or died. We shot it raw, with no grade, no filter. Reality doesn’t come color-corrected, and I didn’t want to change what we captured. The imperfection is the grade. This is where life can take you when you play too close to the edge, chasing substances, sex, and dopamine highs to escape depression. It led me down a rabbit hole of self-destruction that leaves you emptier than where you began…with all that being said… enjoy “
Irish-American rapper, singer & songwriter Everlast returns with a powerful new single, Stones – his inaugural release with Thirty Tigers, in partnership with Regime Music Group. Produced by Yelawolf, more on an upcoming project will be revealed soon.
“Stones’ is a song about culpability and regret. A journey from self loathing to self healing and forgiveness,” Everlast says. Raw, reflective, and deeply personal, the song marks the first glimpse into this next chapter, a bold step forward that balances vulnerability with resilience. Like his empathy anthem of the past 20 years, What It’s Like, it’s yet another example of Everlast seamlessly weaving the thread that connects all walks of life through the shared, everyday realities we each experience – no matter who we are or where we come from.
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