The Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #4 - The Checks: Deadly Summer Sway

The Top 20 Albums of 2011

#4 The Checks: Deadly Summer Sway

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: I've been reviewing my picks for the Top 20 Albums of 2011 in an ongoing series. You can read the other entries here.

In 2010 I started a new job, and a guy in a high-up position there was wearing a t-shirt that featured The Checks. I'd always been fond of the group, but never bothered to check (pun intended) out their albums. In New Zealand, if you don't live in Auckland, it's easy to write off "Auckland bands". From a Wellingtonian's perspective, and speaking in generalisations, the bands that make it big in our biggest city often sound like they tried to make it big in a bigger city (usually London) and then came back to our smaller pond for another go at the spotlight. So, sometimes, my prejudice - however unfair - means I miss out on good music when it's at its hottest. To cut a long history lesson short: I found out in 2010 that I'd missed 8 years of fantastic music by one of New Zealand's best bands. In 2011, they released Deadly Summer Sway and I was determined to not miss out on the fun this time around. If your browser is cool, you can stream the album below:


Deadly Summer Sway has the sound of a band that has been around for a decade. No-one's trying to outshine anyone else in the group; they're a cohesive whole, apparently focused on serving each song in whatever way they can. Check out the bass riff and backing harmonies in the single Ready To Die below. It has a funky groove at its core, despite the necessary mod-cons of being a "rock" track by a "rock" band, and the group never loses sight of how incessantly danceable the song has to be:


This album is thus the maturation of the alleged 'North Shore Sound'. The Checks have now bettered the very groups that influenced them, despite the fact that those groups were so obviously indebted to another generation prior. As UnderTheRadar put it, "The Checks' third album Deadly Summer Sway has the classic rock appeal that The Strokes and The Killers try for, with more artful experimentation, and without the 70’s cocaine-addled affectation and pretentiousness." Bang on.


The thing that I like about the album is that each track is at once independent of the others around it, but also complimentary of them too. Too often in 2011, "rock bands" tried to prove their credentials with LOTS OF GUITARS, ALL THE TIME, reeling and squealing from one monotonous song to another. Many released records (I'm looking at you Foo Fighters) and relentlessly bashed on the Pro Tools / Logic computer-based generation, as if recording on analogue equipment magically made your songs better. The Checks didn't need to fall back on any of those 'look at me!' crutches. They created a good album, that works from start to finish. The Herald gave it 5 stars out of 5. You should check it out. If you can't stream it from the above collection of tracks, try their BandCamp page. It is a solid album that you'd do well to have in your iTunes library, pile of CDs, or bookmarked in your web browser.


Thanks for reading folks, check in tomorrow for a review of the third best album of the year. Click this link here to catch up on any reviews you might have missed.

The Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #8 - The Sami Sisters: Happy Heartbreak

The Top 20 Albums of 2011

#8 The Sami Sisters: Happy Heartbreak!

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: iTunes tells me I listened to around 83 hours of music that was released in 2011. A month or so after the year ended, I felt ready to compile a list of The Top 20 Albums of the year. Until the weekend just been, I'd been good and had published a review of one album per day. I'll get back on the horse again today, to make sure we're done in a week's time. Today we're up to #8, and we've only got seven more to go. Catch up on the other 12 entries here.

The Sami Sisters' debut album is a stunner. The artwork's gorgeous, sonically it's top-knotch, and it's the best New Zealand-made pop music of this decade. The record's called Happy Heartbreak!, and it lives up to its name. Thematically, a lot of the songs dwell on the loss of love, but many are delivered in an upbeat and "happy" way. This is female pop that is lyrically infused with its own enthusiasm. Check out their thumping ballad, Cry:

The music video kills off the men in its cast in less than 2 minutes. The rest of the dinner party has no choice but to join in with the band, who sings "things like you come and things like you go" in a mariachi-like chant. The song builds to a soaring "crryyyyyyyy" and, slowly, layers and layers of instrumentation are added on top of each other. It's a strong cut, though its a cut that has borrowed its strength liberally from the back catalogue of The Turtles (see Happy Together, and Elenore for a direct comparison). To be fair, The Turtles are the masters of this sort of clompy and choppy pop ballad, so it was a wise choice to base the tune on their style.
If you're worried Happy Heartbreak is a derivative mish-mash by a bunch of musical magpies, put those fairs to rest. Check out the above song Take It Or Break It. It's as inventive, danceable and interesting as the Kiwi classic by Bressa Creeting Cake, Palm Singing. This is no coincidence: the 'Cake' in the aforementioned group is Edmund "Cake" McWilliams and he produced Happy Heartbreak!. I don't mean to take anything away from The Sami Sisters themselves, because they've proven to be great lyricists and musicians, but this record has just as much of Cake's DNA in it as it does theirs. Luckily for the rest of the world, the resulting baby is a beautiful one. Check out the best track from the bunch, Oh Boy:

The achievements of this song are too numerous to mention. In my mind, Oh Boy is the best sounding tune of 2011. It's been mixed to perfection by Tchad Blake - the dude responsible for the best sounding album of this decade: The Black Keys' Brothers. It sounds good in every environment I've played it in. Each time I do, someone asks "who's that? This is cool." And they're right: this is damned cool. I can't praise this album enough. It's been produced to an inch of its life and it still feels raw, vibrant and fresh. Its lyrics are hilarious. The harmonies are glorious and sound like a group of sisters having a blast. A song like Oh Boy is so well written and performed that it puts the rest of the New Zealand industry to shame. I wish there were more albums out there like this gem. You can buy it from Bandcamp, Marbecks, or iTunes.


Thanks for reading folks, be sure to check in tomorrow for the next review. It involves one of the key members of today's album... hopefully that doesn't give it away ahead of time! Click this link here if you want to catch up on any of the reviews you've missed.

The Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #9 - Supermodel: To The Mountains

The Top 20 Albums of 2011

#9 Supermodel: To The Mountains

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: I listened to, shall we say, quite a few albums that were released in 2011. I also love writing lists and reviewing things, so I combined these activities to come up with this annual list of the year's best records. Each day I review another album from the 'Top 20'. Today we're up to #9, and we've only got eight more to go. Catch up on the other 11 entries here.

Supermodel are the first New Zealanders to make it into the 'Top 10' this year. They'll be joined by one more group. Supermodel's debut album is called To The Mountains. It did quite well last year, sales-wise. To quote their website, the record "topped the iTunes rock category on the first day of releasing.... And it didn't stop there. In the first week of release, Supermodel entered the IMNZ charts at No. 4, and landed No. 37 in The Official RIANZ Top 40 Album Chart." Not bad for a Kiwi group's first record (especially considering the likes of Adele topped the charts pretty much all year). Check out their lead single Blondie below:

Good, no? It's equal parts Muse, Queen, ABBA, and, well, Blondie themselves. In my mind, this is the closest to "arena rock" that New Zealand's seen since the likes of Shihad and HLAH roamed the airwaves. The great thing is, when they play their tunes live, they sound exactly like the music video above. Every vocal line is always perfect, the rhythm section are tight-like-a-tiger and the tempo is hard'n'fast. This is a band that has staying power, probably because they're musicians first and rock-stars second:

The bit that gets me about that song is the vocal at 1 minute in. My god, that's basically Freddy Mercury. Supermodel's lead singer, when he's on-form, can tear the roof of a bar. It helps that he's backed up by harmonies from the rest of the band that are spot-on. This is grand, operatic and big-dumb-fun rock. In a weird way, the song above (Want To Move) reminds me a little of an oldschool Status Quo song Burning Bridges. The best song though, is the mini-eruption that is the album's titular track:
It's a slow build that they often use to open their sets / begin an awkwardly-forced encore. To The Mountains executes that Freddy Mercury howl just right, to introduce a thunderous Muse-like buildup, which then segues into a Strokes-esque stomper. Amazingly, the track's energy seems to have been completely expended, so it just... stops. Admirable, considering the group's been influenced by artists who could variously be described as overwrought, self-indulgent and show-boats. Not Supermodel though: they're done when the song itself is done. There's no point stretching something out beyond its natural length, and I think they recognise that wonderfully in the song above. If you're not convinced of the band's genius yet though, you should check out one more song, Game of Kings:

It's piano-driven and sticks to its swung beat throughout, even giving a moment for the rhythm section to shine. And what a backing line they are; the bass-lines that Michael White lays down on this record are stunningly intricate. There are flourishes where a lesser bass player wouldn't bother, and they keep my ears in a permanent state of disbelief throughout. I'm not used to such melodic bass hooks in modern rock. It's a pleasure to listen to his sterling work, especially when its delivered in lock-step with their tight drummer, Tony Kemp. Frankly, it's a pleasure to listen to an album this good made by fellow Kiwis. You can download the album here.


Thanks for reading another post in this series. Tomorrow's review will be about another group of New Zealanders. Read up on the past editions here.

The Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #16 - Rhythm Hawks: Rhythm Hawks

The Top 20 Albums of 2011

#16 Rhythm Hawks: Rhythm Hawks

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: each day for another 15 days, we're reviewing the 20 Best Albums of 2011. You should check out others in the series here if you wanna find out what you've been missing.

Full disclosure, I'm friends with many of the members of Rhythm Hawks. They're actually on a hiatus at the moment, after a fairly hectic schedule of gigging. As such, I'll try to keep this review as clinical as I can. Heck, thanks to their Bandcamp page, which enables embedding and sharing, I can let their music do the work for me:

What's the first thing you notice as you listen to that song? Is it the fading of a siren? Or is it that you're unsure what era the music comes from? For me, the thing I love about it is that the song seems to blossom right up to 1:27. Its sense of space and colour continues to open right up to that point. From there, the song hits a pause button and continues another blooming period. The band wisely resist hitting that button too often though, and the next time they do your patience is rewarded with a wall of sound. And what a groovy (outdated adjective used deliberately) sound they can make:

How do you like that for a jam? Sure it's nothing revolutionary, but its inclusion on Rhythm Hawks harkens back to a time where surf bands let loose with instrumentals that were sometimes more interesting than the tracks around them. Specifically, I'm thinking of a song like The Beach Boys' cover of Moon Dawg. This type of cut says to the listener, "we're here to dance and strut, but we'll add a sharp edge to that fun, so please pass the whiskey." But then, if you're watching them live, you figure that out pretty quickly. Here's them at Mighty Mighty, in Wellington, having a grand old time with their song Coochie Coo:

I wouldn't say their live shows were legendary or incendiary just yet, but the band got tighter and tighter throughout 2011, to the point where their set sounded just as good as the album we're reviewing today. If nothing else, their album and gigs were consistently able to boost my mood last year. No matter what time of day I put one of their songs on, I'd be able to rock out with a big goofy grin on my face. The album's final song Outside Woman Blues is like the sum of their parts: a howling lead guitar that plays throughout, a thumping rhythm section in lock-step (with fantastic bass drops to bring the band into line), and the whole band hollering at the top of their lungs between bottles of Castlepoint. Check it out below:

Ready for another review tomorrow? Cool. It's less rock and more hippity hop than today's album. And, as always, click here if you want to read any of the other posts in this series.

The Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #18 - Liam Finn: FOMO

The Top 20 Albums of 2011

#18 Liam Finn: FOMO

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: You're reading the third entry in a daily series, focused on reviewing one of 2011's best albums each day. Over the next 3 weeks, we'll work our way up to the 'Best Album of 2011'. You can catch up on missed entries by clicking this link here.

Let's get this out of the way now... 2007's I'll Be Lightning is, to me, an absolute classic. At the time I swore it was the Album of the Year, and I'm still fine with that decision. Its arrival hit me like, well, a lightning bolt. It screamed "see, we can sing in kiwi accents but make some damned good music while we're at it." Liam Finn's live shows became legendary for their loop pedal creativity, that would build and build into a monstrous, drum-heavy, crescendo. In the years since, he's performed on Letterman, added a variety of musicians - most importantly, Eliza-Jane Barnes - to his line-ups, released an EP, and made a sort of indie-NZ supergroup called BARB. Fair to say, he's been a busy boy and he's been keeping himself interested musically.

FOMO feels like the proof of all that musical pudding. This is not a follow-up to a prior album; it's a fresh entity unto itself. FOMO is an album that stands on its own two feet, without prior precedent needed to survive, nor any mention of its creator's family tree. All this is as it should be. Finn's well into his second decade as New Zealand's wildest indie-rocker. Coupled with Betchadupa, BARB and his solo work, he's put on shows that I'll look back on with fondness to my dying day. This is not a "sophomore record" at all; I've lost track of how many records he's appeared on now! No, this is the work of a fully-formed artist, who's quite clearly grown-up, wiser and more experienced than any of his previous albums showed him to be. Check out this fantastic live version of his song Roll of the Eye below for an idea of what I mean:

Wow huh? How nuts does that get? In lesser hands, it might have been a naval-gazing song about stifled creativity. Handled by Finn, it's capable of a broader dynamic than that. I feel like FOMO presents songs that are mined to their full potential. They explore the surface, then delve deeper inside to find pockets of riffs that are unexpected, but gratefully received by the listener. Liam alluded to this in the publicity material released around the album's launch. He frequently mentioned that his relationship with producer Burke Reid was deliberately collaborative, and that the resulting songs were different to how he'd have made them if he were left to his own devices. Of all the songs on FOMO, that difference in approach is perhaps the most obvious on its thundering middle-track, The Struggle:

It's one of the best sounding pop songs I've heard in years... provided it's played on a good set of speakers. Sadly, it sounds absolutely horrible on a bad set of speakers. I heard it in a tinny set of speakers in a cafe a few weeks ago and all I could hear was the effects, the handclaps and the sawtooth waves of the keyboard. All traces of the thumping bass line and vocals were gone. Likewise, play it through your iPod's earbuds (and to be fair, that is how the majority of music is probably consumed these days) and you'll end up hitting pause or turning down the volume. It makes me sad to say it, but I'd love to hear a remixed and remastered version of FOMO. I'd really like to hear a mix that present's only Finn's vocals and the core group of instruments to the listener. They're strong songs, they withstand scrutiny, and they've been played passionately by their creator. The music video for Jump Your Bones makes this point abundantly clear:

Perhaps the swirling mix was concocted to add more conflict to an album that is explicitly about inner conflict? If so, cool. Point well made. The blurry album cover also ties to this theme, the sound effects and crazy keyboards do too, and that acronym of a title makes sure you know it. FOMO is an album that screams "we're at home, and we're damned uncomfortable about that." It's an album explicitly about New Zealanders' deep and abiding cultural cringe. I dig it. You should dig it out of your local record store / online retailer.

Return tomorrow to find out who made 2011's 17th best album. They're an American band that, briefly, redefined what rock music should sound like. As always, if you want to see other posts in this series, click here.

The Top 20 Albums of 2011 - #19 - Kimbra: Vows

The Top 20 Albums of 2011

#19 Kimbra: Vows

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: You're reading the second entry in a daily series. Each day, I'm posting a review about one of 2011's best albums. Over the next 3 weeks, we'll work our way up to the 'Best Album of 2011'. You can catch up on missed entries by clicking this link here.

The 19th best album of 2011 was made by someone born in 1990. Just-turned 21, Kimbra has produced a work that belies her years. It's a pop album in the same way that a Janelle Monaé record might be. This is jazz, lounge, a capella ooo's and aaa's, swing and soul, all wrapped up in a package that is, somehow, definitely 'pop'. Safe to say that very few aspiring starlets out there are getting stuff like this released right now. This is bold, risky music. Not bad for a New Zealander! Check out the first song, Settle Down:

Great huh? It builds in the same way that you bake scones: preheat, sift in the dry stuff, add the thick stuff, stab it, knead it in over itself, press it down, coat it, and then let the heat build it up to something that is both with, and without, form. What an impressive production. Everything folds, bends and buckles under the momentum. Its precision and fluidity reminds me of the album artwork, which features (I presume) Kimbra dusted in white powder and drenched in inky bodypaint:

I'm eagerly awaiting Kimbra's follow-up to Vows. Next time around, I hope she gets more of a chance to dominate the song than the production team does. In Vows, the artist and the music itself are intertwined to such an extent that it's hard to tell who is the genius: the engineers or the singer. For now I'm happy to say both are outstanding groups of musicians making a remarkably coherent record. I'd just like to have a clearer picture in my head next time of who is leading who. In the video below though, there's no doubt who is the star:

Tune in tomorrow to find out who made the 18th best album of 2011! They're also a New Zealander, but don't worry, we'll get back to the Americans and Brits soon enough. And if you want to see other posts in this series, click here.

THE TOP ALBUMS OF 2010 #11 - So So Modern: Crude Futures

THE TOP ALBUMS OF 2010
#11 - So So Modern: Crude Futures
Words by Dirk Calloway





Preface: each day I'm reviewing one of 2010's Top 20 albums. You've joined us at #11. Cheers.






Starting off with a lone guitar, riding one note like a latter-day Eye of the Tiger, So So Modern announces they're going to take their sweet time on this record. Crude Futures has as much energy as its predecessor, Friendly Fires, but the enthusiasm is channeled in a more meaningful way. This record is a sniper rifle, while the earlier one was a sawed-off shotgun. I like both equally, but for very different reasons. To use an over-used expression, Crude Futures "is a marathon, not a sprint." The opening track simmers away, adding more instruments and loops at 15 second intervals until - "aaahh" - the band of vocalists finally start singing their arrival. In this case, they're not just arriving in the album, but they're returning to the forefront of New Zealand music. A minute later they eventually get around to making the noise dance-able via a familiar keytar bass and then the record blasts off into the stratosphere.



Lord knows what the band think, but in my opinion this is the closest they've yet got to recreating their live sound. In the case of the track just mentioned, it pulls back exactly as they do on-stage, allowing a seething sweaty mass of bodies a moment to comprehend the madness they've just heard. It's a live show like no other and it's a damn shame they didn't do more gigs in support of this CD. From what I understand that has to do with being in your late 20s and, frankly, having life to get on with. Let's just say the worst happens and they never come back from hiatus, I'll still be able to play this to my kids one day and say, "that crap you're listening to has nothing on the stuff this kiwi band was performing in my day." In this way Crude Futures finally allows So So to join the Split Enz club proper-like; they've made an album that sounds electrically 'live.'

So, the songs. The track that follows aforementioned 'moment' of silence is a hyperactive beast like the So So Modern of olde. Nothing wrong with that, but I feel it failed to gel with the record as a whole. The next four tracks, by comparison, are much more superior: a complete work unto themselves. They are cut from the same cloth, and become the backbone of the album as a whole. They set up tics, themes and ideas that are paid off within each song but also in the last few tracks that take the record home. What I'm saying is that SSM are now thinking in broader strokes than the three or so minutes they used to contain their ideas to. The mid four songs are absolutely key to this idea and the band has set up a legacy for themselves by including them in the order they did. The tracks say to me, "none if this is accidental jamming. We've thought this through and we're better than a Pub Band now."

I heard 81 records from 2010 and very few had So So Modern's confidence, skill or good judgement. You'd be silly to not give them a shot. Check it out now, while record stores still exist to do so! Tune in for more tomorrow, where we're going to review a bizarre orchestral / R&B / steampunk hybrid. Exciting.

THE TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2010 #17 - The Brunettes: Paper Dolls

 

THE TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2010
#17 - The Brunettes: Paper Dolls

Words by Dirk Calloway

Preface: You're reading part 4 of a daily series I'm doing, which lists my Top 20 Albums of 2010. I listened to 81 albums last year, so feel like I'm entitled to act like I know what I'm doing. If you disagree, feel free to let me know in the comments below. Come back tomorrow for more! Previous entries were New Young Pony Club's 'The Optimist'; Spoon's 'Transference' and Eminem's 'Recovery'.

Many New Zealanders' first memories of The Brunettes stem from the lightning-in-a-bottle classic Boyracer. Using a faux-Spanish vibe mixed with their standard bubble-gum pop twee, the group lampooned the "cars screeching... gears grinding... gravel and glass..." and in the process mocked Fast and Furious culture perfectly. But that was 2003 and now it's 2011, so have they moved on sonically? Are they still the group that sung titles like Cotton Candy and Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks?

Safe to say that The Brunettes have matured a whole lot in recent times. They signed with Sub Pop (indie rock record label who previously signed groups like Nirvana, Fleet Foxes, Soundgarden, etc) and this album's been released by choice-as Lil' Chief Records, while they've proceeded to tour or open for world-class groups like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Beirut. They've seen the world in the last decade and it must've smelled like stale beer a lot of the time. Indeed, the group seems to consciously recognise this with their first music video of the record, what with Jonathan Bree walking across the globe for most of it:

If you watch the above video, you'll realise that it's laden with a looping 808-sounding drum beat. It's nothing fancy, but it keeps the song popping along nicely. The album is filled with programmed rhythms and it's all the better for it. Each new beat makes sure you think the album sounds merely 'nostalgic' instead of '50s twee'. As an added bonus too, the driving snares also dial down the intensity from the band. I don't know about you, but when I play a pop record in the presence of others, I want to make sure it's always pushing forward to the next beat. Previous records of The Brunettes have consciously played with the dynamic shift between 'clap clap' and 'earnest singing,' which can make for a disjointed listen when you've put on at a dinner party! Sonically, Paper Dolls is more like The Ting Ting's We Started Nothing than a faux-Doris Day record, and thus The Brunettes earned back my attention.

The reason they're in The Top 20 though is the beautiful song called If I. Each time I hear it, I'm floored by its arrangement. The song is based around the standard "call and response" technique the two singers have based their career on, but they're asking each other some hard-hitting questions like, "If I should accidentally die - leaving much too soon - would you play and sing our songs the same, with somebody new?" The orchestration perfectly compliments the over-earnest delivery of the lyrics, building up to a trumpet-laden climax with real drums and a bunch of well chosen organ sounds. In its darkness, its the nearest The Brunettes have ever gotten to (another New Zealand favourite) Goldenhorse. In 2010, a year of cold financial chills, they've delivered a song with the warmth of Radiohead's No Surprises. You can check out a - surely unsanctioned, but usefully available... - 'video' of it here on the Youtubes:

Well, that's the highlight of the album. What's the 'lowlight'? That would be the opening track, In Colours. Its hook is too damn catchy, which is precisely why I won't find a version of it to link to. If I do, it'll be in your head for days on end. The song itself has this 'break down' section that sounds like The Brunettes' version of a Kiss-styled foot stomping bridge. It's got a guitar part that reminds me of U2, which is not a good way to endear me to an album from the get go either. Until I wrote this blog I had completely forgotten about this song, because I'd banished it from my iPhone many moons ago. I listened to the complete CD from end-to-end though and instantly cringed when I heard In Colours again. It called into question my judgement for including the album at all. But, I assured myself, that at least it's the first song. If you've got it on CD, you just start from Track 2, and if you're of the Apple products (TM) generation you can just delete it from whatever MP3 player you use. It's the one blemish of an otherwise perfect record.

That wraps up today's post folks, make sure you read on for tomorrow's addition to the list. #16's by someone who's now dead! Not often that happens on a Best Of The Year list!