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Off the hook
New Zealand Listener
|August 2-8, 2025
Auckland post-punk band's songs skewer empty language on impressive sophomore album.
LIFE ADVICE
By Soft Bait
This Auckland four-piece have refined the art of saying and playing less, but tighter, on this mightily impressive second album. Their pared-back, fist-tight New Leaf is a serious contender for single of the year.
Even more than on the menacing Killing Time and Sleep from their 2022 Plot Points debut, vocalist Joshua Hunter has distilled intimidating masculinity for New Leaf and then again on the switchblade speak-sing attack of Long Line, the singer's dysfunctional persona attributed to a lineage of misfits and arguments.
Elsewhere are the explosive relentlessness of Highly Recommended ("these things I like came highly recommended") and the Iggy Pop-like energy of TNT and Neighbourhood.
This story is from the August 2-8, 2025 edition of New Zealand Listener.
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