Bachelor Girl Waiting For The Day: Artist Sessions

Tracks: Blind – with Darren Hayes, My World – with Sheppard, Gotta Let You Go – with Jack Jones, Permission to Shine – with Guy Sebastian, Mad About You – with NERVO, Treat Me Good – with Jessica Mauboy, Don't Hold Back – with Suze DeMarchi, Buses and Trains (Sunday Session) – with Delta Goodrem, Someway, Somehow – with WILSN, Lucky Me – with Courtney Act, Blown Away – with Tommy Emmanuel and Ella Hooper, This Must Be Love (Like It or Not) – with Jon Stevens, I Don’t Believe You – with Michael Paynter, You Are Afraid – with Kaylee Bell, Waiting for the Day – Bachelor Girl

Label: Band On A Bus

Bachelor Girl never quite garnered the success in the UK that they deserved. Despite Buses and Trains becoming a staple of late-'90s radio playlists and appearances on programmes such as The Pepsi Chart Show, the single ultimately stalled at a disappointing No. 65 on the UK Singles Chart. Back home, however, it was a very different story. The Australian duo enjoyed the success of two acclaimed albums before disappearing into the wilderness, only for their legacy to be reassessed in 2011 with the release of the long-lost third album Beautifully Wrong alongside the retrospective collection Loved and Lost. Both served as timely reminders that Tania Doko and James Roche had crafted some of the finest pop songs of their generation.

Now, 15 years on from that rediscovery, and some 28 years after the release of their platinum-selling debut Waiting for the Day, Bachelor Girl has returned to celebrate the record with Artist Sessions – an inspired collaborative reimagining featuring a veritable who's who of Australian music. Rather than simply recreating familiar songs with guest vocals, the duo have allowed each collaborator to leave their own unmistakable fingerprint on the material. The result is an album that feels simultaneously nostalgic and refreshingly new.

This is not just a celebration of one of pop's most internationally undercelebrated debut albums; it is a compelling and genuinely uplifting exercise in collaboration. Every reinterpretation remains unmistakably Bachelor Girl, yet each guest artist brings enough of their own identity to make these songs feel reborn rather than merely revisited.

The emotional centrepiece remains Buses and Trains, with Delta Goodrem delivering a heartfelt, understated performance that honours the song's timeless vulnerability without trying to outshine it. It is every bit as affecting as the original, reminding listeners why it became such an enduring anthem in the first place.

Elsewhere, the surprises come thick and fast. Suze DeMarchi of Baby Animals injects Don't Hold Back with a swaggering country-rock confidence that recalls the best of Shania Twain, transforming what was once a straightforward album track into one of the collection's undisputed highlights. Darren Hayes proves an equally inspired collaborator on Blind, where his unmistakable vocal, combined with Roche's refreshed production, steers the song into intriguingly Michael Jackson-esque territory that few could have anticipated but which works brilliantly.

The soulful richness WILSN brings to Someway, Somehow gives the track a warmth and depth that feels effortless, while Courtney Act's delightfully cartoonish vocal performance injects Lucky Me with a sense of theatrical fun that perfectly complements its infectious melody. Guy Sebastian adds gospel flourishes to Permission to Shine, Jessica Mauboy elevates Treat Me Good with effortless vocal chemistry, while Sheppard, Jack Jones, NERVO, Jon Stevens, Michael Paynter and Kaylee Bell all make meaningful contributions without ever overwhelming the songs themselves.

Yet the album saves perhaps its greatest transformation for Blown Away. Featuring guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel alongside Ella Hooper, the song receives the biggest glow-up of the entire project. Emmanuel's exquisite acoustic work intertwines beautifully with Hooper's expressive vocals, lifting the track from hidden gem to breathtaking showstopper. It's impossible not to finish the song feeling exactly as its title suggests.

Far too often, anniversary albums feel like contractual obligations or exercises in nostalgia. Waiting for the Day: Artist Sessions is neither. It breathes new life into an already exceptional collection of songs while introducing them to a new generation through some of Australia's finest artists. More importantly, it serves as a reminder that Bachelor Girl's songwriting has always deserved to be spoken about alongside the very best pop of its era.

If Waiting for the Day was overlooked outside Australia in 1998, Artist Sessions makes an irresistible case that it's finally time the rest of the world caught up. 2026 truly gives Tania Doko and James Roche's permission to shine.