with tracks like In the Dreamlife I Need a Rubber Soul they must at least have heard the Loft back in 1985…
The Clean – Mister Pop
Nice record this from the New Zealand veterans, despite the odd dip now and again. The instrumental Loog and Are you Really on Drugs are fine slabs of lazy, slightly frayed folk-psychedelia. At times I thought, “eh, are these fookers listening to Witthüser and Westrüpp?” Probably not, but I reckon with tracks like In the Dreamlife I Need a Rubber Soul they must at least have heard the Loft back in 1985…
Elsewhere the Bodines/C86-style slacker pop is brilliantly exemplified by Factory Man and Back In the Day which are fabulous tracks and draw on the spirit of M.E. Smith far better than Pavement ever did. I mean, buggeration, it could be I Ludicrous…
Now and again things get too hazy and lose their edge. Simple Fix is slightly irritating in this regard and best skipped… Luckily the listener is let down gently with the lovely closing track All Those Notes.
Words: Richard Foster