I have another confession to make.

Kia ora! Thanks for joining me on this wintery Saturday morning. Soon, an album I am ashamed to admit I cannot get enough of. But first, a few headlines we need to get through…

• Controversy has erupted over a live Sydney concert by a band that uses AI in its music. “The shock kind of turned into disgust,” one of the human artists on the bill told ABC about how he felt when he was told he’d be performing with the AI band Afro Charles. The AI band’s creator has defended his group but promoters have apologised and say it won’t happen again.

• Troy Kingi is funding the recording of his final album in his 10-10-10 series by selling a limited edition vinyl. Called Yort, Ignik Yort, Kingi says funds for the $180 release will be used to travel to Abbey Road for recording sessions. Buyers will get the album first, plus a personal message from Kingi. You can find it here.

• It might be the middle of winter but summer music festival news is starting to heat up. Synthony has confirmed it will return to Auckland Domain on March 27, with pre-sales on now. And a new festival called 8th Wonder will hit Rotorua on January 23, before heading to Brisbane the following weekend. It’s being fronted by L.A.B. and includes Dave Dobbyn, Te Wehi, Aaradhna, Che Fu and Ladi6.

• Finally, there’s a wedding on this weekend. You may have heard. Only 1000 people are going. Every single news site is live-blogging the damn thing. Good luck avoiding it. See you on the other side.

I didn’t want to like it. I thought their Coachella set was rubbish. What happened to Rome Ramirez felt messy. Their recent show at Trusts Arena was awkward, like they were still figuring it all out. In front of a very sloshed crowd, they only played the hits, which were all from the 90s and being sung by someone who was still wearing nappies when those songs were released. When Long Beach trio Sublime announced they would release a new album with their new singer Jakob Nowell, the son of late singer Bradley who died of a drug overdose in 1996 weeks before releasing their biggest album, I didn’t have high hopes.

Then winter arrived. As I write this, my home is shrouded in so much fog I cannot see my neighbours. The HRV unit says it is three degrees outside, and only a few degrees warmer inside. It feels it. We moved in nine weeks ago and there is a spa sitting next to the deck outside, but the old owners hadn’t used it in a year. When I lifted the lid, I found an entire ecosystem of slugs, snails and mould. I sent photos to a man called Craig and he told me it would cost $2000 to get that spa cleaned up and running. When I asked how much a spa costs to run, he told me our power bill would go up $6 a day. If there is a journalist (or, as Shane Jones calls us, a breathless hobbit) in Aotearoa able to afford a spa right now, I’d like to meet them.

So, with all that happening, I pressed play on Until the Sun Explodes. The new Sublime album was released on the same day as Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love and got absolutely devoured by the year’s biggest and best pop album. I expected to give the fourth Sublime album one listen and never hear it again. But the exact opposite happened. It explodes with the same cheery, devil-may-care attitude of everything Sublime has done before. There are DJ scratches, chaotic studio out-takes, punk-rock side-quests, and, at one point, an interview with Bradley. Jakob is a carbon copy of his dad, dodgy lyrics and all. Yet his ability to morph from a rough grunge growl to a soulful croon makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I’m not happy about this. I didn’t expect to fall in love with the new Sublime album. I’m not proud to admit that it’s getting absolutely rinsed in our house. There’s one reason for that: it’s winter, and I want it to be summer. Go listen to ‘Figueroa’ and tell me it doesn’t suddenly get six degrees warmer. Try ‘Trey’s Song’ and tell me you’re not suddenly getting changed into your togs. Press play and the title track and tell me it doesn’t feel like ‘What I Got’ 2.0 and you’re back on the deck of your university flat nursing a warm Export Gold. I dare you.

I know there’s plenty of better stuff I could be listening to. The new Office Dog album Prime Corner absolutely rips. The new Reb Fountain single ‘Good People’ is a protest anthem for the ages. I’m still enjoying The Veils’ eighth album, Fragile World. There’s a new album from Madonna out today, which sounds like she’s trapped on a dancefloor in 1999. You’ve probably got a bunch of stuff to recommend me, and I’d love to hear those. (Send them, please!) But, right now, when it takes three days to get a hoodie dry and the heat pump is cranking so much my lips have cracked, it’s the new Sublime album I can’t get enough of. Don’t judge me. It’s just a moment. It will pass. It’s going to be summer again soon, right?

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I spoke to Jack Tame about the new Sublime album; that’s here.

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