Music

New Zealand

Die! Die! Die! – Promises Promises

Cut Off Your Hands – Blue On Blue

Bic Runga – Beautiful Collision

Why would anyone buy a Norah Jones CD when, for the same price, they could have Bic Runga’s Beautiful Collision? Beats the hell out of me. Favourite tracks: Get Some Sleep, Listening for the Weather, and the beautiful, haunting Gravity. (US/Intl)

Also see: www.bicrunga.net.nz

Dragon – Scented Gardens for the Blind

Long, long before April Sun in Cuba and other such banal offerings, Dragon was an Auckland pub band producing some of the most sparklingly original music of the era. Christ knows what any of it means; the album name is taken from a Janet Frame book title, so maybe it all means something. But don't worry about that too much: just let the imagery and the spacey music take you away. Favourite tracks: La Gash Lagoon (simply surreal), Sunburst, and Vermillion Cellars. (US)

Split Enz – Mental Notes

For me, Mental Notes simply IS Split Enz. My all-time favourite album at the time it was released (and still "up there") I just couldn't believe that the band had no more in them. Their second album, Second Thoughts, comprises essentially the same songs (there is just one really decent addition, Matinee Idyll/129) but the Phil Manzanara re-mix is a botch-up, and all of the other-worldly charm of the original recordings has evaporated. Shortly afterwards Phil Judd left the band, so all we were left with were the Finn brothers trading under an assumed name, and the group produced nothing but the unimaginative, derivative crap we've heard from them since. It's all a bit sad, really, but Mental Notes stands as a bright and shining pearl at the beginning of the road, and the subsequent tale of woe does nothing to diminish it. Favourite tracks: Titus, Under the Wheel, and Stranger than Fiction. (US/Intl)

Just for Fun...

And where would we be without the one hit wonders, then? Some of these are among the truly great, enduring, songs - it's just that the singers and bands who brought them to us, never quite managed much else:

Songs like Whiter Shade of Pale, released around 1960 and you're still as likely as not to hear it on the radio today. Procol Harum was the name of the band which composed and sang it originally, and thank goodness nobody has had the poor taste to essay a remake. Procol Harum had another tiny taste of the top ten with a follow up - Conquistador - but to the best of my knowledge, that was it.

Songs like Something in the Air, from Thunderclap Newman, Love Grows Where my Rosemary Goes by Edison Lighthouse, It Never Rains in Southern California (Albert Hammond), Send Me an Angel (Real Life), I could go on and on.

I guess these folks never made big money, never toured the world; if they were in bands, we probably never even learned their real names. But they made their mark, alright. How would you feel if you'd written ... as the miller told his tale ... maybe, hearing someone humming it forty years later? You've got the music in you. A hundred million of us or more.

International

Kings of Leon – Only by the Night

I've heard of this band, most memorably for the pigeon-poo incident, but didn't really know their music. I was only conscious of having heard two of their songs: Revelry, which I like, and Sex on Fire, which I don't (though I'll concede it's a well-crafted song), so the album I chose was Only by the Night, which has both. Having heard it, now, I remain unconvinced. Revelry is still the only song I've got on my favourites rotate.

Florence and the Machine – Lungs

Imagine Bat for Lashes on nitro ... and you’ve got Florence and the Machine.

There’s a kind of Celtic tinge to the music, and certainly the lyrics on tracks like Rabbit Heart; a kind of new-agey-ness with Cosmic Love; a weird kind of punk-Vivaldi with Vincent Price thing going on Howl; a pulse-quickening percussion section, intelligent lyrics (Rabbit Heart again, for a few good metaphors, and is that a passing reference to The Matrix?) and it all works for me.

Of course there are some crap tracks as well – Kiss with a Fist will never make it on to my mp3 rotate – but, on the whole, I’m rating Lungs as my best purchase so far in 2010, though I believe it was actually released last year.

Favourite tracks: Howl, Rabbit Heart, Cosmic Love, Blinding, You Got the Love.

Paramore – Brand New Eyes

It’s not very often that a pop song can carry off a sustained metaphor, or, for that matter, offer its young audience something resembling mature advice: Well make sure/to build your home brick by boring brick/or the wolf's gonna blow it down./Keep your feet on the ground/when your head's in the clouds. But that song, Brick by Boring Brick, my favourite from the album, does just that, and it’s worth the album price for that alone.

And that is not to say the other tracks are too shabby, either. From the sleepy Misguided Ghosts to the creepy All I Wanted, this is one excellent album. In fact, the only track which doesn’t work for me is The Only Exception. Despite the neat bridge, which almost seems about to go somewhere, but then doesn’t, I find the beginning and end a bit dreary and repetitive.

Never mind! One bum track on a whole album is nothing to complain about. Best album of 2009 and one of the best bands in its genre. Make sure you buy the version with Decode included as a bonus track.

Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster

Stupid name, stupid headwear, stupid girl.

If you’ve ever seen one of this creature’s videos, you’ll be aware that she gyrates about in a skimpy Lycra camel-toe outfit, flapping her tits back and forth to formulaic and highly irritating electronic tink-boop noises, which apparently pass for the music. Managing to keep some of the bits of Lycra strategically plastered across her nipples for the duration of the song is Lady Gaga’s only discernable talent.

That’s not stupid on its own: I’m sure the mild titillation – pardon the pun – sells very well indeed. What is stupid, Ms Germanotta, is when you make fatuous remarks about being conscious of your status as a role model, whilst cavorting like a stripper and singing lyrics along the lines of “I like it rough.” If you honestly think you’re fooling anyone, you’re a complete idiot.

Ok, so I’m writing about the “artist”, rather than the music. That’s because there’s nothing to say about the latter.

Best tracks? Well, there are no good tracks in this shit-fest. There’s one track about half-way through the second disc, called Aye Aye or Eh Eh or something like it, and another similar one a bit further on, which are least bad. The more perspicacious reader will already have guessed that the lyrics of this piece are relatively undemanding, but at least the irritating electronic beeps and distorted singing are held to a minimum. These two numbers almost reach the dizzy heights of teeny-bopper bubble-gum music.

Taylor Swift – Fearless

Pampered narcissist droning on endlessly about her unresolved relationships, in a monotonously whiney voice. Various special features on the ‘Platinum Edition’ provide Ms Swift with the opportunity to talk about herself some more. I, I, I; me, me, me. Give me a break!

Miley Cyrus – The Time of our Lives

I bought this album for my 9-year-old daughter, and she loves it.

Ok, it’s not my kind of music, but I’m not about to slag off a teenage kid who’s worked hard, has a great laugh, and was given her name because she smiles a lot. If you overlook the hair-extensions and dental work, she seems like a real person. At least she’s not some anorexic stick-insect with cuts on her thighs, or in and out of rehab every other weekend. As tween role models go, you could do a whole lot worse, so I’m happy enough for my little girl to listen to Miley’s music, watch the shows, and hang a poster up in the bedroom. I sincerely hope Ms Cyrus is as happy and healthy as she appears to be.

That said, it’s cotton-candy music: sweet and insubstantial. Like most adults, I prefer salami and olives, with a nice wedge of blue.

Best tracks, Party in the USA, The Time of Our Lives, and, for laudable sentiments, The Climb.

Phoenix –  Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

You'd never even have persuaded me to listen to this if you'd tried to describe it to me. Fortunately for me, I was waiting for someone in a coffee shop (Verve on Lambton Quay - great place!) and they were playing this as the featured album at the CD shop next door. I went through and bought it immediately. Don't know what genre to call it ("alternative" means nothing; alternative to what?) and don't know how to describe it. Favourite tracks Lisztomania, 1901, Lasso, Countdown, Girlfriend, and Armistice. Unaccountably, there's some wierd stuff that sounds very much like an old track by Tangerine Dream ... can't remember, maybe something off Tangram? ... which pops up in the middle of Love Like a Sunset. Don't know what that's about, either.

White Lies – How to Lose My Life

Cheerful goth: I can't think how else to describe it. The lyrics are gothic enough, but the music just ... isn't. Still, it's ok. Try Unfinished Business and Farewell to the Fairground for starters.

Scary Kids Scaring Kids – The City Sleeps in Flames

Well, this is something different. Emo-ish, with some screaming, but then there are a few tracks which are certainly not boring old screamo, nor anything else I can readily put my finger to. Try The World as We Know It, What's Said is Done [sic], Just a Taste, and The Bright Side of Suffering. I've found I like it more, and more of it, as I've replayed it a few times over the weeks. Guess it's growing on me.

Gwen Stefani – The Sweet Escape

The Sweet Escape begins with a particularly irritating version of The Lonely Goatherd, complete with (not very good) yodelling, and goes rapidly downhill from there. The only songs which I find even remotely tolerable are Early Winter and 4 in the Morning. The rest is complete and utter crap.

Paramore – Riot!

I've got to stop watching Juice. Every time I do, something comes on and I've got to rush out and buy it. This one was a real surprise, though. The video I saw was Crush, which is ok. But when I listened to the CD, I realised that Crush is one of the weaker tracks. That's What You Get, Hallelujah, When it Rains – just fantastic. I'm sure there are subtle distinctions, which the respective camps of afficionados would blow up into a Big Thing, but Paramore puts me in mind of Avril Lavigne's best album, Under My Skin. Maybe even a bit stronger overall. If you're into emo, this is Fall Out Boy with a girl on vocals. Definitely the best album I've picked up this year.

And, if you can't get enough, there's a live version, too – The Final Riot! – with a fabulous acoustic version of My Heart, a nod to Leonard Cohen with the first verse of his classic Hallelujah ahead of Paramore's own, and a huge Chicago crowd, in good voice and clearly in love with Hayley Williams.

Well, who wouldn't be?

Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

Kate Rogers – Kate Rogers vs Grand Central

Evanescence – Fallen

Sitting in the student cafe one day: "Hey, Nige, something's wrong. They don't play good music in here, but this is fantastic." "Oh, that's Amy Lee. Do you want to borrow the CD?" Well, I'm converted. Favourite tracks: My Immortal, Everybody's Fool, and Taking Over Me.

Avril Lavigne – Under My Skin

The album of the year for 2004 just has to be Avril Lavigne’s Under My Skin. I love the way each song lures you in with a soft introduction, almost a ballad, then hits you with the full force of an adolescent tantrum. It’s wonderful; I love it. Favourite tracks: Together, My Happy Ending, and How Does it Feel. (US/Intl)

Lavigne's next album, The Best Damn Thing, offers some individually superior songs to anything that's on Under My Skin (Innocence, Just Hold On), but unfortunately the rest of the album is loaded up with teeny-bopper shit (Girlfriend et al.) which my seven-year-old likes, but which sure as hell ain't for me.

The Cure – Disintegration

Undoubtedly my favourite album in the genre, although I daresay today's crop of goths would disown it as passé. Moody and introspective, Distintegration is the ultimate indulgence. Favourite tracks: Plainsong, Closedown, and Untitled but, on this album, they're all favourites. (US/Intl)

Jethro Tull – Aqualung

Well, you can't really beat the true classics, can you? Favourite tracks: Aqualung, Cross Eyed Mary, and Locomotive Breath. (US/Intl)

Pavlov's Dog – Pampered Menial

A bit of a one-hit wonder in the charts, with Julia, but for those of us who bought the album, what a treat there was in store. Favourite tracks: Julia, Fast Gun, Of Once and Future Kings. Followed by a sequel, At the Sound of the Bell, in more mellow mood with songs like and Mersey and Megan's Song, but still characterised by David Surkamp's wonderfully strident voice. (US/Intl)