After creating buzz in 2024 with his debut album House with the Blue Door and a Troye Sivan tour support slot, the path seemed set for Sydney artist Nick Ward to do a Sivan and ascend the pop charts with whatever came next.
Instead, Year of the Snake makes the more interesting choice of taking Blue Door ’s introspective, oddball bedroom pop and expanding it onto a larger canvas, with Beach Boys masterpiece Pet Sounds serving as the inspiration .
Like Brian Wilson, Ward has opted to project positivity despite his personal life becoming a dog’s breakfast, with his lyrics often reflecting this dichotomy (see: “I need a little oxygen” and “never give up” from opener Making Time ).
The album’s restless, psychedelia-tinged songs reveal their magic over time, although some are more immediate. In My Head is E.L.O. if they had an LSD phase; Jenny is a yacht rock-inspired gem; and Oh Paloma! , with its Vampire Weekend DNA, really should’ve been the album’s lead single.
Pet Sounds may be an impossible benchmark to reach, but Ward has made a lemonade album out of several lemon relationships, emerging as something better than a pop star in the process: an idiosyncratic artist who’s willing to get messy and weird. That’s a win for both him and us. James Jennings
Almost two years on, 2hollis’ debut Australian gig at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory remains the absolute sweatiest show I’ve ever been to. I’d be surprised if the venue wasn’t permanently damaged by the seeping moisture from the topless guys and crying girls who hung off his every word. In the time since, the 22-year-old rage rap-turned-hyperpop star (real name Hollis Parker Frazier-Herndon) has become one of underground pop’s most oddly divisive figures: a prolific, leather-pantsed, nepo lightning rod – his dad is Tortoise drummer John Herndon; his mum Kathryn Frazier, a lifelong music biz publicist and Skrillex associate – lauded and derided for his noisy, churning, bombastic approach to glitchy hip-hop and electro-pop.
Pirouette , his fifth album, is his most accomplished and challenging yet. If 2hollis has always had androgynous sex appeal, Pirouette funnels it towards tender romance – an innovative development for rage-rap, where male toxicity goes to mosh.
Spring (Love Me) , Skin and The Lady in Red are paeans of devotion built on sticky sweet melodies, head-rattling bass and thick power chords. Prince’s influence is everywhere, from the soaring guitar solos to adoring come-ons (his pale heir apparent, Gen Z guitar god Mk.gee, produces Human After All ).
And yet, 2hollis’ penchant for harsh experimentation can’t be tamed (he grew up in the household of a post-rock icon, after all). Sophie binds My Chem Rom emo, mathy digicore and J-pop; Eyes Wide Closed , with its grinding industrial stomp, channels Nine Inch Nails. It’s a lot, and frustrating when closer Daisy – perhaps the best pop song 2hollis has ever made – highlights what can happen when restraint takes control. But you can feel him inching his way – blood, tears and, yes, copious amounts of sweat – towards a masterpiece in real time. Hop on board (and bring a towel). Robert Moran
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