Rewind Fields: Rewind Fields (bandcamp)

A decade ago Emily Rice was an up-and-coming singer-songwriter at the University of Auckland and was, two years in a row, a finalist in the annual songwriting competition.

So she knows a good song when she hears one.

She now seems to be in publicity and contacted Elsewhere about this album by Rewind Fields (Callum Lee, also a songwriting finalist the same years as Rice) which she was enthusiastic about.

As she should be because here are languid, Fifties-style retro ballads which conjure up contemporary dream-pop and soft California breezes (much of Wolves is like a lost Brian Wilson song from around late '66) but are also soaked in a wide sonic palette of layered vocals, electronica, guitars and more.

Safezone for example is an elegantly laid-back ballad with a lovely setting for saxophone and chiming guitar given a deep rinse with a brittle soul-funk guitar solo.

Te Atatu is similarly dreamy until it is submerged behind electrostatic noise. At times like that, this collection treads a fine line between craft and chaos. But the underlay is those slightly woozy songs dating from 2014-17 which he recently unearthed and then worked on.

The brief instrumental Lake Ngatu at the centre and the evocative Sunriser (electro-Frippertronics) keep the processing separate from the songs and stand as successful in their own right.

But at its very best – the seductive Magic Mirror, Photographs, Wolves and Almahara particularly – you can imagine Patti Page melodies (like Old Cape Cod) sung by Wilson then given an overhaul in the manner of recent albums by Low . . . and with contemporary lyrics.

And given these references it's no surprise that the final piece is Hollywood Overture, but of course it isn't like that at all.

Very much worth taking the time for. It is different, in a good way.

The Rice is right. 

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here