The Amazons have always delivered music built for the big moments—anthemic, guitar-driven, and emotionally charged. With their new album 21st Century Fiction, the now three-piece band channels that same energy into something more considered and introspective. It’s a record shaped by personal evolution, creative risk, and a desire to find meaning amid the noise of modern life.
When we last spoke with The Amazons, frontman Matt Thomson reflected on stepping away from darker themes of the first two albums in search of something more uplifting. That perspective fuels 21st Century Fiction, an album that embraces honesty, reinvention, and emotional weight without losing any of the band’s signature force.
This week, Matt curates the 1883 On Rotation playlist with the songs that have been his lifelong guides. From the defiant hope of “Heroes” to the ambition of “Paranoid Android,” these tracks don’t play it safe—they remind us what music can do when it dares to go all the way.
Matt from The Amazons takes over this week’s playlist to celebrate the release of their new album, 21st Century Fiction.
A message from Matt – Hail Marys, Big Swings and Knockouts
I’ve put together a playlist of songs that have guided me, soothed me and inspired me for most of my life. They are my North Stars. They remind me of what is possible with sound and lyrics. They remind me of the transportive nature of music. That’s what I want! Don’t meet me where I’m at. Capture my attention, stretch out your hand and take me on an adventure.
These songs all, without exception, started as little seeds, alone on a piano or guitar, before growing into the towering achievements we hear today. Once we understand that, they won’t daunt; they will inspire.
“Heroes” – David Bowie
The power of collaboration. Bowie’s name is on the tin, but what’s inside is a combination of great minds burning red hot. There’s a beautiful video online where Tony Visconti runs through the isolated tracks and tells the story of Bowie, Brian Eno, Visconti and Robert Fripp all following their instincts and trusting one another.
To create a song so collaborative, so resolutely hopeful, so determined to see the good in people, under the cold shadow of the Berlin Wall, one of the most infamous symbols of human division, is what makes ‘Heroes’ the towering achievement it is.
“Born To Run” – Bruce Springsteen
One last roll of the dice. Beginnings and endings. Leaving the past in the dust, roaring into the future. I yearn for the future that Springsteen could see in this song. In 1975, the future was filled with promise, adventure and dreams fulfilled. In 2025, the future is at best, uncertain.
“Baba O’Riley” – The Who
A demonstration in the beauty of ending a song miles away from where it began.It was apparently a part of a much larger, ambitious album called Lifehouse, which was thrown out. It doesn’t matter how ideas start; just get them on the page, you can edit later.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
“Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy?”. That’s where I want to create, in the little pocket between reality and fiction. And Freddie, within the first few strokes of piano, put me there. The diversity of the structure, the wild range of influences, all packed into almost 6 minutes, shouldn’t work. If Queen had attempted it on their first few albums, maybe it wouldn’t have. But they had experience on their side. None of the songs on this list are from debut records. These acts earned the opportunity to grow and refine their craft. They learnt what is possible through trial and error, and they used it to understand what it takes to get there.
“Time” – Pink Floyd
This has been an important song for us in The Amazons. It’s beauty is in the lyrics, the groove, Gilmour’s transcendent solo, but also how it relates to the rest of the album ‘Dark Side of The Moon’. It’s a piece of the puzzle, revisiting melodies and themes from the opening song ‘Breathe’, to solidify the idea of listening to the album in one sitting. This is a song and album that bear fruit the longer you listen to them. Secrets reveal themselves over time, as your relationship with the work deepens.
“Stairway To Heaven” – Led Zeppelin
There’s a deleted scene from Almost Famous, where William plays his mother ‘Stairway To Heaven’ to convince his mother to let him go on tour with Stillwater. It’s really to explain what words cant’; his yearning, for adventure, for the road, for whatever is around the corner. They sit, for the entire song, reacting to the twists and turns without words, just wide eyes and the smiles.
This is music that demands your attention. It’s not for the background; it’s for your mind! It’s for your heart! It’s for your imagination. It’s a conduit for dreams. Put on your headphones, immediately, and let the sounds carry you away. The introduction of keys and extra guitar at 2.13 especially, is breathtaking. Giants did, in fact, once walk the earth.
“Hotel California” – Eagles
It’s eye-roll inducing because it’s overplayed. It’s overplayed not just because it’s a great song, but it’s success in shaping how we see the 70s, California, the USA. It encapsulates the strange, and at times dark, beauty of the hedonism and excess of that decade.
“Paranoid Android” – Radiohead
A multi-part epic, inspired by many of the songs on the list. While they captured the optimism of their time, Radiohead were so successful at encapsulating the insecurity of ours. The mixture of prog experimentation meets pixies loud-quiet dynamic is unsettling and strange and I love to revisit it.
“Go All The Way” – The Amazons
This is a message to myself, and the band, and our friends. It’s inspired by a Bukowski poem I read called ‘Roll The Dice’. I think entering our 30s was a scary, but clarifying experience. If we aren’t going to our mark now, will we ever? If not now, when?
Listen to the playlist below.
The Amazon’s new record 21st Century Fiction is out now.
Follow The Amazons at @theamazons
Featured image by Jess Greaves
