So - how have the band come up with the best album of their career to date released, presumably with no small irony, at the height of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season? “Mood Valiant”’s clue is in the name: by drawing upon her mother’s decision to switch between a black and white career depending on her mood that day, Saalfield inverts the band’s streak of rough luck. Hopes for a restful start to the 2020s were dashed as Australia lost its early handle on pandemic management, and went into a series of convulsing lockdowns it has not yet fully come out of. She went into remission the next year, but not before her pet and Hiatus Kaiyote’s unofficial touring fifth member, a parrot named after 20th century jazz great Charlie Parker, died. Saalfield, who lost her mother to breast cancer as a child, was diagnosed with the same condition. Given the Melbourne-born four piece’s predilection for spinning sultry golden-hour moods out of soul, R&B, jazz-funk and beatwise noodling, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if “Mood Valiant” never got made at all.Ģ018 saw the band reach a new level of cultural cachet, as unmistakable lead singer Nai Palm (Naomi Saalfield) released a solo LP and featured as a guest vocalist on Drake’s globe-dominating “Scorpion”. Their track record of fine releases and festival presence ground to a sudden halt. Since 2015’s sophomore album “Choose Your Weapon”, Hiatus Kaiyote have been through hell and back.
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