Priya Sami’s band Bub are fed up but plenty of fun

Priya Sami’s previous musical output with Trip Pony and The Sami Sisters was pretty amiable, but that’s not the case with Bub. The name is short for Break Up Band, which might suggest an album of weepies, but far from it: Sami and co are more aligned with spiky seventies rock.

‘Another Girl’ is a kiss off to an ex that amps up the guitar fuzz, and ends with some beautifully orchestrated swearing. Sami isn’t here to placate, and even the album’s title - Can’t Even - suggests someone who’s fed up.

She’s also frequently funny. In the comedic highlight ‘Mrs Julian Casblancas’, Sami celebrates her ongoing parasocial fixation with The Strokes singer with a gleeful lack of self-awareness.

Can’t Even is an album with some lyrical venom as well as quite a bit of fun, and arcs toward something more amicable: the final track ‘Bored’ delves into nu-R&B, heartbroken but content.

Hand-picked to support The Beths at their Auckland show, and gaining college radio play in America, Christchurch singer-songwriter Mim Jensen is on the rise.

Her second EP proffers polished, crisp indie-pop, with lyrics reflecting the “dark places” mentioned in press notes. On ‘Past Life’ she sings about “pretending that [she’s] good at being alone”.

A line in ‘Same Blood’ is more ambiguous but just as cutting: “We may have the same blood but that won’t make a difference to me now”.

Jensen tends to eschew flashy choruses, opting for subtle shifts instead, but there are exceptions. A big melodic salvo arrives in ‘PTP’ courtesy of an impassioned acoustic guitar, and ‘Warm Gun’ has a chorus begging to be sung along to.

A slow burn which nods to The Beatles, that track introduces subtle strings and banjo, before more voices enter and do start to sing along. It adds a sense of solidarity to the sadness, and the overall effect is beautiful.

Hailing from Scotland, Cloth’s music is intentionally soft and airy, but it’s always been perfectly formed.

They’re a sibling duo - twins in fact - Rachael Swinton providing consistently ethereal vocals with her brother Paul on guitar.

Pink Silence is a term Paul says refers to “those moments late in the evening or very early in the morning, when the sun is rising or setting… those moments can either feel blissfully serene, or charged with a sense of foreboding.”

It’s a good description of the band in general. The biggest change this time is a slight increase in pop sensibility, and lush string arrangements from Canadian composer Owen Pallett.

The album’s highpoint is an acoustic ballad called ‘The Cottage’. Aside from its sense of comfort, the song finds the Swintons complementing each other perfectly, guitar and voice intertwined with the kind of synthesis that could perhaps only come from twins.

Tony Stamp reviews the latest album releases every week on The Sampler.