Here are the best Melbourne albums – do you agree?
Naarm/Melbourne boasts an extensive music history, its acts creating classic albums that transcend generations as well as borders with international accolades.
The city’s culture is diverse, too, with thriving pub-rock, hip-hop, R&B and electronic dance music scenes. But what are the 20 definitive Melbourne albums? We came up with a longlist and then shortlist, and this is the final cut.
Melburnians can be eccentric and these selections show that. Are there any omissions?
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Australian Crawl, The Boys Light Up
In 1980 Australian Crawl, formed on the Mornington Peninsula, released the first of a seminal three-album run in The Boys Light Up, produced by Little River Band guitarist David Briggs. The band gave surf music a homegrown twist, frontman James Reyne’s vocals distinctive and idiosyncratic. The album has Aussie Crawl pub-rock anthems such as Beautiful People and the title-track, with the sax-heavy ballad Downhearted and piano-laden Hoochie Gucci Fiorucci Mama among other highlights.
I’m Talking, Bear Witness
I’m Talking was so much more than a vehicle for future icon Kate Ceberano. The group, actually with two powerhouse vocalists in Ceberano and Zan Abeyratne, delivered slick funk, glam disco and electro-boogie at the height of the 80s pub-rock era, attracting interest from the UK, where they were (briefly) signed to London Records. I’m Talking travelled to New York to cut their sole album, 1986’s Bear Witness, with Scritti Politti drummer Fred Maher as co-producer, using François K’s studio. Do You Wanna Be? was a big hit in Oz, but the Abeyratne-led Holy Word is THE JAM.
Paul Kelly And The Messengers, Gossip
If Paul Kelly is a beloved figure in Australian music, then it’s largely due to Gossip; the 1986 double-album that brought him mainstream recognition. His original band name The Coloured Girls sounds problematic today (he changed it to The Messengers) but was lifted from a line in Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side and, like Reed, Kelly is a storyteller. Gossip’s surprise hit, Before Too Long, reveals his ability to pen a resonant radio song. In fact, the album has it all: troubadour folk, country, blues and punchy modern rock.
Max Q, Max Q
In the late 80s INXS frontman Michael Hutchence was viewed as a swaggering rock star (though he did cut the funk Original Sin with Nile Rodgers). But, launching Max Q, he recorded a one-off experimental music project with local punk-cum-electronic pioneer Ollie Olsen, the two bonding during the filming of Richard Lowenstein’s Dogs In Space. Their eponymous album, led by the anti-establishment anthem Way Of The World, is now hard to find and unavailable on streaming platforms, but its mythos endures. No mere curio, Max Q is seminal electronica.
Tiddas, Sing About Life
Yorta Yorta Dja Dja Wurrung woman Lou Bennett, Gunditjmara woman Amy Saunders and Scottish-Australian Sally Dastey formed the folk trio Tiddas (meaning ‘sisters’) and earned a reputation as live faves before debuting with 1993’s timeless Sing About Life. The music is elevated by the group’s gorgeous harmonies, with spare instrumentation aside from acoustic guitar and percussion. Malcolm Smith is a powerful protest song about Indigenous custodial death (with Tim Holtze’s didgeridoo). The album was certified gold and won best Indigenous release at the ARIAs.
Vika And Linda, Princess Tabu
Sisters Vika and Linda Bull started as folk, gospel and blues vocalists. But, following the chart success of 1994’s self-titled debut on Mushroom Records, the duo presented a bold narrative album, Princess Tabu, a Pasifika fantasy about two separated siblings. The pair generated buzz in hiring Jeremy Allom as co-producer, the Brit a mixing engineer on Massive Attack’s acclaimed Blue Lines. Exploring their Tongan heritage, the Bulls fuse traditional music with everything from dub to R&B to electronica to the groovy prelude The Parting Song, a Paul Kelly co-write.
CDB, Glide With Me
In the 90s Dandenong was a hub for the Australian R&B movement, centred around Roger Abboud’s Midnight Productions. Midnight’s flagship act, the male vocal quartet CDB (Central Dandenong Boys) signed to Sony Music and charted with 1995’s Glide With Me. Andrew de Silva, brothers Brad and Gary Pinto and Danny Williams put their stamp on New Jack Swing with Hook Me Up, provided a slow jam in Hey Girl (This Is Our Time) and adeptly covered Earth, Wind & Fire’s Let’s Groove; the year’s highest selling domestic single.
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Murder Ballads
It’s virtually impossible to select an ultimate Nick Cave album, such is his expansive catalogue, the polymath involved with two formative bands; The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds. Making waves in the post-punk scene, Cave epitomised the new goth and that sense of drama prevails on 1996’s Murder Ballads, his most immediate yet subversive LP. Cave’s duet with Kylie Minogue, Where The Wild Roses Grow, was a cultural moment. But Minogue isn’t the only notable cameo, with PJ Harvey adding expressive vocals to the traditional number Henry Lee, chronicling a scorned woman’s revenge.
Kylie Minogue, Kylie Minogue
The Princess of Pop, Kylie Minogue enjoyed early success with the backing of the UK’s SAW (Stock Aitken Waterman) production team, her style commercial hi-NRG. With her fifth album, she went out on her own, staging a daring reinvention as a sophisticated dance music artiste. Minogue showed a flair for curation, connecting with house producers like Brothers In Rhythm and the Pet Shop Boys. The first single, Confide In Me, is still her most beguiling song. Interestingly, the album predates Madonna’s Ray Of Light.
The Avalanches, Since I Left You
Part of the Modular Recordings stable, The Avalanches unleashed a trailblazing album in 2000’s Since I Left You, combining the aesthetics of hip-hop (or, rather, plunderphonics) and filter house. The collective even managed to clear a sample of Madonna’s Holiday. Frontier Psychiatrist, with DJ Dexter’s turnable scratches, was a crossover hit. The Avalanches would sweep the ARIAs, significantly taking out producer of the year. Such was the album’s international impact that remaining members Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi spent almost two decades following it.
Curse Ov Dialect, Lost In The Real Sky
In the early days of the Australian hip-hop movement, Western Sydney dominated. But, emerging from Melbourne’s Western suburbs, the multicultural Curse Ov Dialect represented a fresh local wave, the oddball fold infamous in the underground for their theatrical performances. Curse Ov Dialect were the first Australian hip-hop act signed by a US label, Mush Records, ahead of their third album, 2003’s Lost In The Real Sky. They found fans like Future Islands’ Samuel T Herring with raps in authentically Aussie accents, socially-conscious messaging, global samples and cred turntablism. TZU’s Joelistics guests on All Cultures.
Jet, Get Born
The alt-rock Jet broke out with Get Born when in the 2000s EDM was ascendant, prompting their provocative missive Rollover DJ. Ironically, Nic Cester’s band enjoyed a huge hit with the garagey Are You Gonna Be My Girl – and 2003’s debut Get Born not only reached #1 on the ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart, but also charted in the UK and US. Jet’s range impresses, there’s Beatles-esque balladry (Look What You’ve Done), Bob Dylan-style rock (Move On) and even Ride-y shoegaze (Lazy Gun). Jet cleaned up at the ARIAs, winning album of the year.
Lisa Gerrard, The Silver Tree
A member of Dead Can Dance, Lisa Gerrard embarked on a solo career in the mid-90s and established herself as a composer and haunting vocalist in the soundtrack sphere. Her work alongside Hans Zimmer on 2000’s Gladiator won a Golden Globe for best original score. Six years later, Gerrard returned with the ambient cinema opus The Silver Tree, its opener the spectral opera In Exile.
Missy Higgins, The Sound Of White
Melbourne singer/songwriter Missy Higgins advanced from winning triple j’s Unearthed competition with the plaintive All For Believing to breaking through majorly with 2004’s chart-topping debut album The Sound Of White, primarily written solitarily on piano. The upbeat Scar typifies her confessional writing. Higgins hired veteran UK producer John Porter, renowned for his collaborations with The Smiths. She picked up several ARIAs, including album of the year.
Daniel Merriweather, Love & War
It’s bonkers that a kid from Sassafras in the Dandenongs became Australia’s biggest neo-soul export. Signed to Mark Ronson’s Allido Records, Daniel Merriweather followed a popular remake of The Smiths’ Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before with a classic album in 2009’s Love & War. It was certified platinum in the UK, with Change (featuring Wale) and Red both hits – and Merriweather duets with Adele on the delicate ballad Water And A Flame, since covered by Celine Dion. Live By Night is a sublime deep cut. Though underrated in Australia, Merriweather won best male artist at the ARIAs.
Midnight Juggernauts, Dystopia
Melbourne’s most mysterious band, Midnight Juggernauts premiered with 2007’s Dystopia on their own Siberia Records. The album achieved cult status internationally amid the indie-dance boom, the Juggernauts’ sonic aesthetic enhanced by Vincent Heimann’s gothic baritone and the band’s polyphonic harmonies, the influence of Daft Punk and ELO apparent. The cosmic disco Shadows (initially aired on Cut Copy’s Cutters Records) is still a DJ favourite.
Big Scary, Not Art
The Melbourne indie-pop outfit Big Scary are underestimated on a national level, but they’re legends in their hometown. In 2013 the versatile Tom Iansek and Joanna Syme presented their sophomore Not Art; broody post-rock informed by hip-hop experimentation. Phil Collins was chosen as a teaser single, but the wistfully melodic Twin Rivers is the pinnacle. The LP won the Australian Music Prize (AMP).
Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
Courtney Barnett’s indie-rock is quintessentially, and even parochially, ‘Melbourne’, the fact that she went global with 2015’s wry, poetic and observational Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit a major accomplishment considering the local references in the song Depreston. But, then again, the brash Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party is universally relatable. Barnett scooped Australian awards (winning The AMP) and received a Grammy nod for best new artist, astonishing as an independent artist on her own Milk! Records. A decade later, Sometimes… holds up.
Hiatus Kaiyote, Tawk Tomahawk
Hailing from Fitzroy, Hiatus Kaiyote put Melbourne’s future soul scene on the international map with their 2012 debut album Tawk Tomahawk, originally a Bandcamp release but reissued by Salaam Remi’s Sony-backed Flying Buddha. The band, fronted by Nai Palm, courted industry champions such as UK tastemaker Gilles Peterson, ?uestlove and Prince, and Black audiences in the US cherish them. Hiatus Kaiyote welcomed their first Grammy nomination (best R&B performance) for a hip-hop remix of the single Nakamarra featuring A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip.
Chet Faker, Built On Glass
Signed to Sydney’s Future Classic, Melbourne electro-soulster Chet Faker (aka Nicholas Murphy) blew up with 2014’s debut Built On Glass. It landed at #1 on the ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart and won Faker a bounty of ARIAs, including best male artist. The groovy Talk Is Cheap placed at #1 on the triple j Hottest 100 with Gold (his finest song!) and 1998 also in the top 10. In 2024 Faker celebrated the album’s 10th anniversary headlining a sold-out Live At The Gardens.
Check out our list of the best Melbourne films here.
