Genre: NZ Music, alt pop
Places I remember: Real Groovy Records
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Andy
Gear costume: Claude Rains
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Andy
Gear costume: Claude Rains
They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7
Active compensatory factors: Let's start with the obvious stand out track - Andy. It's brilliant. One of the main reasons being that it stands up to repeat listens - it never gets old for me. That heart-felt slow reveal is without the kind of smart arse grinning cynicism that a few of the other Sinclair dominated songs have. Justifiably, it is seen as one of the greatest NZ songs ever.
Never fear - thanks to Don McGlashan's presence, there are a few other beauties on this debut. Notably Claude Rains, and Tomorrow Night.
I do find Harry Sinclair's delivery a bit smarmy so I'm less inclined to his material. Theme (from the lounge bar) is an example - the rinky dink music suits the idea of a lounge bar in the imagination but it ultimately feels rinky dink.
The idea for How Are You Doing? feels like a logical extension of some characters from Walkshort - a very cleverly filmed NZ short film The Front Lawn made a couple of years before. But it doesn't really work as a song.
The rest are so so as songs. The problem at times is the music is mixed down a lot, Harry's vocals are not as strong as Don's, and the actual songs feel like works in progress. But, hey! This was their debut, so some slack is called for here.
Where do they all belong? Overall, The Front Lawn are kiwi as - the vocal tics and the subject matter, that I can identify with as a kiwi, mark them out as a lovely little backwater bach that I visit from time to time.
Certainly, Bret McKenzie and Jermaine Clement were paying close attention to McGlashan and Sinclair.
Active compensatory factors: Let's start with the obvious stand out track - Andy. It's brilliant. One of the main reasons being that it stands up to repeat listens - it never gets old for me. That heart-felt slow reveal is without the kind of smart arse grinning cynicism that a few of the other Sinclair dominated songs have. Justifiably, it is seen as one of the greatest NZ songs ever.
Never fear - thanks to Don McGlashan's presence, there are a few other beauties on this debut. Notably Claude Rains, and Tomorrow Night.
I do find Harry Sinclair's delivery a bit smarmy so I'm less inclined to his material. Theme (from the lounge bar) is an example - the rinky dink music suits the idea of a lounge bar in the imagination but it ultimately feels rinky dink.
The idea for How Are You Doing? feels like a logical extension of some characters from Walkshort - a very cleverly filmed NZ short film The Front Lawn made a couple of years before. But it doesn't really work as a song.
The rest are so so as songs. The problem at times is the music is mixed down a lot, Harry's vocals are not as strong as Don's, and the actual songs feel like works in progress. But, hey! This was their debut, so some slack is called for here.
Where do they all belong? Overall, The Front Lawn are kiwi as - the vocal tics and the subject matter, that I can identify with as a kiwi, mark them out as a lovely little backwater bach that I visit from time to time.
Certainly, Bret McKenzie and Jermaine Clement were paying close attention to McGlashan and Sinclair.
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