HTRK: Rhinestones – Blue

HTRK, the Australian duo of Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang, walked into their 21st year on reflective terms. Accompanied by a series of performances and installations throughout 2024, they teamed with long term partners Ghostly International to repress their 2009 full-length debut, Marry Me Tonight (out February 7th, 2025), finally bringing the release to streaming services, and shared String of Hearts, a new EP featuring covers/remixes from friends including Loraine James, Liars, Double Virgo, and more. The duo continues to look back while moving forward, sharing news of the next reissue: the beloved 2021 album Rhinestones.

Self-released in the fall of 2021, Rhinestones was a revelation for HTRK, kickstarting a subtle resurgence for the Melbourne group and showing them at the top of their powers. Marked by a new infatuation with “eerie and gothic country music,” Rhinestones is an elegant nine-song suite of windswept emotion and heartbreak noir, crafted in skeletal arrangements of guitar, voice, metronomes, and FX. From whispered lament to acoustic eulogy to downtempo vignettes, the album took cues from the economy and brevity of Western folk but skewed through a narcotic, nocturnal lens. The set garnered high praise from Gorilla vs. Bear, The Wire, and Pitchfork. The latter wrote, “Over the past decade, the Melbourne group’s music has grown lighter, gentler, and more inviting with every release. Here, they trade their minimal-wave roots for unexpected forays into gothic country.”