Every week, 88Nine music director Erin Wolf shares a sonic gem she found using her nearly 20 years of new-music exploration experience. You can hear all her discoveries live on 88Nine at 10 p.m. every Monday on What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
New Zealand art-folk icon Aldous Harding just announced her fifth album for release later this spring and shared its lead single, “One Stop,” which holds some delightful ’70s vibes with its piano-forward structure (it almost ventures into Joni and Carole King territory.)
The 10 songs Harding picked for Train On the Island were co-produced with longtime collaborator John Parish — who has worked with artists like PJ Harvey, Dry Cleaning and Sparklehorse — at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. That’s the same place the two recorded Harding’s previous albums Party (2017), Designer (2019) and Warm Chris (2022).
Train On the Island arrives May 8, after which Harding sets off on an epic tour that includes a stop at Chicago’s Thalia Hall on Sept. 18. More immediately, “One Stop” is featured on this episode, which you can enjoy via the player at the top of the page.
Best new indie music this week
- Fever Ray, “The Lake”
- Mute Swan, “Like a Chump”
- GOON, “Atrium”
- villagerrr, “Locket”
- Aldous Harding, “One Stop”
- Greg Mendez, “I Wanna Feel Pretty”
- cootie catcher, “Loiter for the love of it”
- Motorists, “The Damage”
- Osees, “Joro”
- Telehealth, “Cool Job”
- Marlon Magnée, “Plus fort que toi”
- MEMORIALS, “Dropped Down The Well”
- GUM, “In Life”
