A lot of us are cooped up at home with only our thoughts – and those of our household’s – to amuse us.

For anyone who was confused by the recent Hottest 100 of the Decade list, or thinks Billie Eilish is an old western character, now is your chance to discover some of the best new music that’s making the rounds today.

Enjoy.

Tame Impala – The Slow Rush

Kevin Parker aka Tame Impala notoriously makes his psychedelic hymnals shuttered alone in the studio. Clearly then this is a record for these times. This fourth LP moves in a slightly more pop direction with some hip hop flavours. It’s passionate, intense and full bodied. You just lie back and let your mind go where it will go.

Kate Ceberano, Steve Kilbey & Sean Sennett – The Dangerous Age

Kate sings the hell out of these 12 pop rock romances. It’s Kate’s passion that is the fire here. Church maestro Steve Kilbey brings his smooth tone and his particular sensibility. Brisbane singer songwriter Sean Sennett centres the trio. These are classic rock tunes for adults. They are romantic, beguiling and performed with grace.

Yumi Zouma – Truth or Consequences

Right Track / Wrong Man is apparently a song about wanting to be alone. Perfect. This quartet formed in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake has produced an album of ethereal, springtime pop music. They touch folk music and they’re not far from the Fifth Dimension harmony-wise. The dreamy layers of melody can engulf you for days.

James Taylor – American Standard

Sweet Baby James is the latest boomer crooner to have a shot at the ‘Great American Songbook’. He brings to it his sensibility, his dark side of depression and heroin and American noir which underlies the honey and smoke tones of his voice. He is like Sinatra in that way and he twists the sweet show tunes with a modern frame. Not the most original of ideas certainly but Taylor makes it his own.

Toby Creswell is a music journalist and pop-culture writer, as well as a former editor of Rolling Stone (Australia) and founding editor of Juice.