Music at Elsewhere
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Paloma Faith: Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful? (Sony)
5 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
For the past few months it seems to have been impossible to miss Pixie Lott: posters and interviews (none of which I've read I must admit), her poppet-features poking out of every corner of popular culture. It came as a surprise to me then to learn just last week that the ubiquitous Pixie -- clearly a talent whose genius requires our on-going interest -- has only just released her debut... > Read more
Paloma Faith: My Legs Are Weak
Jimmy Webb and the Webb Brothers: Cottonwood Farm (Proper/Southbound)
5 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
Anyone who has followed the career of the great songwriter Jimmy Webb (interviewed at Elsewhere here) will attest to two things: he crafts memorable material (all those hits for Glen Campbell, the gorgeous minimalism of The Moon's A Harsh Mistress made famous by Joe Cocker, the baroque McArthur Park) and he ain't much of a singer. Like Burt Bacharach, you usually need to hear Webb's... > Read more
Jimmy Webb and the Webb Brothers: Where the Universes Are
Ray Columbus and the Invaders: The Definitive Collection (Zodiac/Ode)
4 Oct 2009 | 2 min read | 1
The point to note about Ray Columbus and the Invaders being inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the 2009 Music Awards is that it is Ray Columbus AND The Invaders. Columbus might have been the charismatic and energetic frontman, but as this 45-song double disc reminds, he had a band that were as good as it got in this country during the early Sixties -- and no surprise that... > Read more
Ray Columbus and the Invaders: Cat's Eyes
Great North: Soldiers (Great North)
4 Oct 2009 | <1 min read
New bands often make great claims for themselves -- that is forgivable -- but I especially like the humour of what this Auckland five-piece say of their music: "It is the sound of Bruce Springsteen having a tumultuous affair with Gillian Welch" and "the songs were delivered by angels. Drunk angels. The kind you don't invite round for fear they will break your teapot or burn their... > Read more
Great North: Jericho
Chris Smither: Time Stands Still (Shock)
4 Oct 2009 | <1 min read
As on his earlier Leave The Light On, this grizzled singer-songwriter now in his mid 60s, covers a Bob Dylan song, this time It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry. He also adds in Mark Knopfler's Madame Geneva's and that's a more useful reference, because Knopfler explores roots music -- but Smither lives it. His low grumble isn't too far removed from Knopfler's although comes on... > Read more
Chris Smither: I Don't Know
The Raiders: Indian Reservation/Collage (Raven/EMI)
4 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
When this band emerged as Paul Revere and the Raiders in the Sixties they were a rocking, sometimes salacious and rather terrific garageband (albeit one which dressed kinda funny) and so, quite rightly, a compilation of their Greatest Hits appears at Essential Elsewhere. By 1970 the world had turned through hippies, horn-augmented bands like Blood Sweat and Tears, jamming outfits and so on.... > Read more
The Raiders: The Boys in the Band (from Collage, 1970)
Mark Knopfler: Get Lucky (Vertigo)
4 Oct 2009 | 1 min read | 2
For man who made his reputation with mercurial guitar work and not his rather undistinguished voice, former Dire Straits frontman Knopfler (profiled here) takes a real chance on this solo outing: there’s barely a guitar lick in the first two songs and the album opens in a distinctly Celtic mood with fiddles and flutes, then steps in with some soulful balladry. With some songs which are... > Read more
Mark Knopfler: Hard Shoulder
Jordan Reyne: How the Dead Live (www.jordanreyne.com)
1 Oct 2009 | <1 min read | 1
I guess when Creative New Zealand were looking for someone to write music to raise awareness of the country's historical and cultural heritage they wouldn't have had a long list. Right at the top would have been Reyne anyway. One of this country's most gifted, probing and intelligent writers, she delivered (if nothing else) the stunning Passenger album a few years ago based on her train... > Read more
Jordan Reyne: The Brave
Tim Finn: Anthology; North South East West (EMI)
28 Sep 2009 | 1 min read
Anyone who considers the Tim Finn timeline would quickly conclude that here was a man who always did it his way: the theatrics and manic energy of Split Enz combined with alarmingly engaging and durable music; solo albums which were sometimes uncomfortable for their self-analysis; others which were snappy and poppy; soundtracks and side-projects . . . So a double disc overview of his... > Read more
Tim Finn: Straw to Gold (from the album The Conversation)
Pearl Jam: Back Spacer (Universal)
28 Sep 2009 | 1 min read
Just as some would have you believe there were "Beatles fans" Vs "Stones fans" back in the day (usually by old people styling themselves Stones fans to appear cooler than they actually were at school), so too there was that weird schism set up between Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Nirvana were, of course, "authentic" and Pearl Jam were somehow just pretend-grunge in... > Read more
Pearl Jam: The Fixer
Grand Archives: Keep In Mind Frankenstein (SubPop/Rhythmethod)
28 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
It would be fair to note that after saying very favourable things about this band's impressive debut The Grand Archives, I fully expected to never hear another note by them. Not that they would break up, but that their particular charms would go past so many people that whatever they did next might not get released in New Zealand. It is my great pleasure to announce therefore . . .... > Read more
Grand Archives: Oslo Novelist
Various: Albums from the Smithsonian Folkways series (Folkways/Southbound)
28 Sep 2009 | 1 min read | 1
The Smithsonian is one of those great American institutions which, if it says "we're here to help" actually is. In their Smithsonian Folkways collection they have short audio examples of 40,000 tracks and through their Global Sound website they are all available for download. And they have the original liner notes for the relevant albums which you can view for free.Which might make... > Read more
Big Chief Ellis: Dices Blues
The Wailin' Jennys: Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House (Shock)
27 Sep 2009 | <1 min read | 1
On the release of their Firecracker album a couple of years back I noted that you'd be forgiven for getting burn-out on this whole old-time country music sung authentically by people who are probably middle-class and well educated. Still, people like Gillian Welch do it so well, and you don't want to open up that whole "can white people sing the blues?" discussion. So if you... > Read more
The Wailin' Jennys: One More Dollar
John Fogerty and the Blue Ridge Rangers: Rides Again (Verve)
21 Sep 2009 | 1 min read
The odd thing about hearing the great Creedence Clearwater Revival on the recently released Woodstock set was that they sounded exactly like themselves: that's what happens when you keep your music simple and sharp, and you have a voice as distinctive as John Fogerty's up front. Fogerty is still out there playing Creedence songs and new material (and sounding damn good at it) but here... > Read more
John Fogerty: I'll Be There
Taken by Trees: East of Eden (Rough Trade)
15 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
This ethereal and exotically charming album by Swedish singer-composer Victoria Bergsman (aka Taken by Trees) is something of a rarity: she travelled to Lahore where she encountered not just the local musicians but a certain, shall we say, unusual attitude towards unmarrried women in Pakistan. None of that tension is here in the music however where her languid vocals float over tabla, flute... > Read more
Taken by Trees: To Lose Someone
The Duke and the King: Nothing Good Can Stay (Shock)
14 Sep 2009 | 1 min read | 3
The singer-songwriter behind this gorgeously tuneful, lyrically probing debut is Simone Felice of the terrific Felice Brothers, two times Best of Elsewhere artists (2007, 2008) for their amalgam of ragged-but-right country which owed huge debts to the early Band and country-styled Bob Dylan, but who put their own stamp on proceedings. The songwriter/drummer has left the band and teamed up... > Read more
The Duke and the King: One More American Song
Kieran Kane: Somewhere Beyond the Roses (Shock)
13 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
If nothing else, and there is a lot of "else" here, the instrumentation on this new album by the Nashville singer-songwriter Kane would be pretty arresting: drums, electric guitar, banjo and baritone sax, the latter from Deanna Varragona who has played with Lambcop. It makes for a sound which can be sprightly (the banjo) but also full of dark corners (that deep sax), and that... > Read more
Kieran Kane: Why Can't You?
Yim Yames: Tribute to (Rough Trade)
13 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
Yim Yames is actually Jim James from My Morning Jacket (no, don't ask me why) and these six songs were actually recorded in 2001, a few days after George Harrison's death as a tribute to a man whose life he said was "a prime example of the healing powers of music". There have been bigger and more self-conscious tributes to Harrison, but none more heartfelt or so emotionally direct... > Read more
Yim Yames: Ballad of Sir Frank Crisp (Let it Roll)
Jesse Harris: Watching the Sky (Inertia)
13 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
The news that Norah Jones has co-written a song with with Ryan Adams for her forthcoming album The Fall (due in November) is interesting: will he move in her direction or she to him? And which her, or which him? Many of the other tracks are Jones' own work (no bad thing) or with longtime partner Jesse Harris who here delivers up a polished, almost easy listening line of melancholy melodies... > Read more
Jesse Harris: Looking Back
Tahuna Breaks: Black Brown and White (Chocolate)
7 Sep 2009 | <1 min read | 1
I'd be astonished if Tahuna Breaks don't have hugely successful concerts on their current tour, and sell truckloads of this album -- because they tick every stylistic box that New Zealand audiences seem to like: you want James Brown-styled soul-funk (you've got it on Giddy Up which isn't the Katchafire song, and Funky Mama), or you want light lovers rock (here on Only You)? There is the... > Read more