Is this a new subset of New Zealand music: bands led by authors and academics? This year has already seen a credible set from the Tenderizers, a country-rock outfit fronted by poet and critic John Newton. Now novelist and creative-writing teacher Damien Wilkins weighs in with GROUP HUG (Austin Records), the debut album of his aptly named the Close Readers. Their music is alt-rock with country leanings. The amped-up and occasionally straying guitars of Wilkins and Laurence Tyler are steadied by the dependable bass and drums of Craig Terris. As one might expect, Wilkins’s lyrics are the strongest part of the package, and he is a good enough singer to draw you in to what might be highly compressed short stories, in which such familiar names as Elton John, Iris DeMent and Lake Alice take on uneasy new meanings.
It is hard to imagine a more worthy or musically satisfying fundraiser than THE HARBOUR UNION (Social End Product), from a collective of mostly Lyttleton artists who have lost venues and livelihoods and have put their own time and money into a benefit for their quake-shocked community. This multi-artist album finds a pool of mostly acoustic players gathered around some of this country’s best singer-songwriters. The production and arrangements are intricate, and heighten the atmosphere of some terrific songs. Two offerings from itinerant songster Delaney Davidson with his dust-dry voice are particularly strong, but there are also affecting tracks here by Lindon Puffin, the Eastern’s Adam McGrath, Jess Shanks, Al Park, and Marlon Williams, whose chorus “I’m the ghost of this town” rings hauntingly long after the last note has faded away.