Every Friday, Sound Under curates the best of Australian alternative music: fresh releases, overlooked gems, rising artists, and songs worth spending real time with.
Whether you’re driving down the coast, walking through the city late at night, or simply tired of playlists chosen by algorithms, these picks are built differently. This isn’t about hype cycles or whatever is trending for 48 hours. It’s about music with replay value, personality, and something real inside it.
No artist is too early. No sound is too left-field, and no scene is too small.
Here’s this week’s picks:
Vacant Space — Cosmic Vice
Cosmic Vice have always known how to write a strong song, but there has been a noticeable shift in what they’re doing over the past year. Since 2025, the band feels sharper, more confident, and more complete in the way they build records. The instincts were always there, but now the songwriting feels like it has caught up with the ambition.
“Vacant Space” is probably the clearest example of that growth.
Originally released as the second single from Inner Clear back in October 2025, the track still hits just as hard now that the full EP is out. Some singles lose their shine once the wider project arrives. This one hasn’t. If anything, it feels stronger in context.
The first thing that grabs you is the hook. Immediate, memorable, and built to stay with you long after the song ends. From there, the track keeps unfolding — tight rhythm work, strong pacing, and a guitar solo from Nicholas that gives the song another lift entirely.
Lyrically, “Vacant Space” taps into something many people understand but struggle to articulate: the feeling of being mentally stuck while life keeps moving around you.
The repeated lines about hiding behind thoughts and “silly little rhymes” suggest someone who once used humour, distraction, or creativity as a shield — but is finding it harder to cope now that everything is arriving at once.
Island, Haven, Home — Ben Lunt
There are certain singer-songwriters who make you stop what you’re doing the moment they start singing. Not because they are loud or dramatic, but because there is something in the voice that feels lived-in.
Bob Dylan had that quality in his own way, where the voice itself became part of the storytelling. Ben Lunt gives us a similar feeling every time we hear him.
The Perth-based indie folk artist has a voice that pulls you in quietly. There is conviction in how he delivers lines, but never in an overdone way. It feels natural, like someone speaking truths they’ve already spent time with. That is what makes you listen closely.
“Island, Haven, Home” is one of those songs that feels soothing from the very first moments, yet underneath that warmth is something deeper. It carries the feeling of reflection, movement, gratitude, and the kind of love that becomes an anchor as life changes around you.
This can be heard as a love song, but also something wider than romance. It could be about a partner, family member, or even a place that gives someone peace. The language of island, haven, and home speaks to safety — somewhere to return when the world feels unstable.
Musically, the track is gentle, calming, and beautifully understated. Even if you never paid attention to the lyrics, it leaves you feeling peaceful. But when you do listen closely, there is real substance inside it.
Ben Lunt has that rare ability to make intimacy feel effortless. “Island, Haven, Home” is another reminder that sometimes the quietest songs say the most.
No Good at Goodbyes — Willowbank Grove
This has to be one of our favourite songs musically on this week’s list.
There are songs you enjoy, and then there are songs where everything just feels locked in — the vocals, the emotion, the arrangement, the timing, the chemistry between the players. “No Good at Goodbyes” sits in that second category. It is the kind of track that reminds you why some bands feel destined for bigger stages.
And right now, Willowbank Grove feel like one of those bands.
There are certain artists you hear once and instinctively know they are going places. Not because of hype, not because of numbers, but because the foundations are already there. The songwriting makes sense, the identity feels real, and the music has movement. Willowbank Grove have that feeling around them.
They have already completed two Australian tours and released a strong debut album in 2024, which gave a clear glimpse of their potential. But like most real band stories, the road has not been completely smooth. In 2025, two founding members departed. Fifteen months passed without new music. For many bands, that kind of period can stall momentum or create doubt around what comes next.
Instead, they returned with “Now and Then,” and since then everything feels like it has begun moving upward again.
The current lineup looks sharp, settled, and energised. More importantly, it sounds like a band that has learned something through change. Sometimes setbacks strip away noise and leave only what matters. With Willowbank Grove, that process seems to have strengthened them.
“No Good at Goodbyes” is a perfect example of why we rate them so highly.
Nobody can predict the future with certainty. Music never works that neatly. But some bands create their own momentum by consistently sounding ready.
Willowbank Grove sound ready.
And with a second album on the horizon, expectations are high for good reason.
Long and Short — Matt Corby
Matt Corby is a name most people in Australia would already know. Many first discovered him as the 16-year-old runner-up on Australian Idol back in 2007, but the years since have shown something far more important than reality TV recognition: longevity, artistic growth, and a refusal to stay in one lane.
Now on his fourth studio album, Tragic Magic (released 17 April), Corby sounds like an artist fully comfortable following instinct rather than expectation. The record moves freely across moods, textures, and ideas across 13 tracks.
There are several strong songs across the project, but the one that hit us hardest was “Long and Short.”
The track carries extra emotional weight, written after the passing of his partner’s mother from pancreatic cancer. Knowing that context helps explain why the song feels so tender, reflective, and human. It is a grief song, but not in the obvious sense. Rather than drowning in sadness, it chooses gratitude, perspective, and love while staring directly at life’s fragility.
Matt Corby has spent years evolving into an artist with depth, patience, and craft. “Long and Short” is another reminder of why he has lasted this long — and why he still matters now.
You and Me — Tori Forsyth
Tori Forsyth returned in 2024 with the ARIA-nominated and widely acclaimed All We Have Is Who We Are, a record that reaffirmed her as one of Australia’s most thoughtful and emotionally grounded songwriters. Then, after that run, things went quiet.
Until March this year, we had heard nothing new.
“You and Me” is only the second song she has released since then, and it feels like a meaningful continuation of where her writing has been heading — honest, intimate, and deeply connected to real life rather than surface-level romance. It may also be the closest thing to a pure love song we have heard from her, though even here, love is not presented in some glossy cinematic way. It is shown through exhaustion, support, sacrifice, and wanting peace together.
That is what makes it land.
The song opens with a feeling many people know too well:
“Life is so busy, and I can’t help but feel / Like I’m missing everything that’s actually real.”
Straight away, Forsyth taps into one of the defining anxieties of modern life. We stay occupied, productive, responsible — yet often feel disconnected from the things that matter most. Time moves, days blur, and suddenly life can feel more managed than lived.
She follows that with a longing for simplicity:
“I sometimes wish my responsibility / Was no more than hearing birds amongst the trees.”
It is a beautiful line because it says so much with so little.
Tori Forsyth has always had a gift for making songs feel personal without excluding the listener. “You and Me” is a love song, yes — but more than that, it is a song about trying to protect what matters in a world that constantly pulls you away from it.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s roundup.
Got a track we should hear?
Tag us on instagram or send it through our DM.