Sky Above the Mud Below, the

An important New Zealand group associated with the well-known Flying Nun (which also brought the world the Chills) label, Tall Dwarves have been around for nearly 20 years. They’re known for their lo-fi recordings and this album reflects that past, though it’s a bit of a stretch to call this lo-fi. While the first two-thirds of the album is more traditional, the last 8 songs are more experimental and worth checking out if that’s yo thang. The most immediate point of reference here would be Robyn Hitchcock. All in all, a thoroughly charming album chockfull of marvelous songs!

My picks: All, but these in particular!
1 Great quirky song about a visit George Harrison made to New Zealand.
3 Cool, hip rocker.
4 Slow, old-timey instrumentation with bells and whistles.
5 Wonderful Beatles-y/Hitchcock-ish charm.
6 FCC! There’s a lyric sheet though, so it might be worth playing. Neat vocal and instrumental distortion going on.
8 Melancholy keyboard drone. Terrific!
9 Bowie/Freddie Mercury doing lo-fi synth pop?
14 Funny as hell. Fake bad ass blues-y rock ‘n’ roll dude.
18 Abrasive, keyboard forms the background for a disjointed vocal sample. Cool.