Miranda Easten released her newest single Only One in NZ Music Month, timely in the Covid-19 lockdown context because, as she describes it, Only One is an uplifting song about proclaiming an unbreakable love for someone, when it feels like no words are adequate or worthy enough.

“I’m a sucker for love and other people will find the song very relatable. It’s a classic love song,” she says. 

Miranda’s first single Cowboy Lullaby brought her immediate success on the Top 40 Country Music Chart in Australia, but Only One illustrates her musical palette is much wider. In recent months she has been recording her debut album at Roundhead Studios in Auckland with producer Greg Haver along with Tom Healy, Cass Basil and keyboardist Stephen Small, a hand-picked team of high quality musicians ideal to colourise a broad musical spectrum. NZM asked her to create a Spotify playlist of some of her favourite songs, and comment on some of them, if she wished to do so.

1. Beautiful Crazy – Luke Combs

Luke writes deeply personal love songs that have made me feel better and make other people feel better. Beautiful Crazy is about Luke being smitten by his lover’s charming idiosyncrasies and my heart melts into a puddle on the floor every time I hear it. You can tell that his words come from a heartfelt and authentic place and I admire how he opens up for his listeners.

2. Dark Child – Marlon Williams

3. She Will Have Her Way – Neil Finn

Neil Finn was never far away when I was growing up. For many years the cassette tapes in our 1987 Honda Accord painted a musical landscape all across NZ when we traveled or were spending time at home.

They say that music and memories are linked and for me this is certain! Weather With You stirs up memories of balmy Summers spent holidaying with family and the song leaps to the front of my mind the moment I smell sunblock! Fall at Your Feet an old lost love and She Will Have Her Way sends tingles to the hairs on my arms from the moment I hear that first drum beat. If you haven’t seen the music video it’s definitely worth looking up!

There’s no denying Neil’s music has shaped who I am musically and his lyrical brilliance cemented the first few paving stones upon my journey. Recording my album at his studio still feels a bit surreal!

4. Only One – Miranda Easten

5. Richard – Nadia Reid

I love Nadia for her poetry and honesty. The electric guitar line is so simple and the way she weaves and threads her vocal through the song is such a contrast to the angular stabs and the distorted baseline of the coda. She’s such an enigmatic personality and that slight distance is part of her charm, truly one of New Zealand’s great artists and songwriters.

6. H.O.L.Y. – Florida Georgia Line

7. Hunter – Aldous Harding

8. Keep Your Memory – Katie Thompson

9. Drive – Bic Runga

Like me, Bic Runga grew up in Christchurch, so as a young teenager I immediately felt a connection to her music. Drive is an uncomplicated and honest song with a bewitching melody and seductive acoustic guitar which inspired me greatly. I find the delicate playing highlights the lyrics in a profound way and somehow the very essence of the words imprint themselves on me.

10. I Got the Lonely – Mel Parsons