3.0 out of 5 stars
More pleasant than blustery, August 27, 2005
This fits into a softer, more acoustically grounded version of the Peter Jefferies saga. It reminds me of the Verlaines' and The Chills' pastoralia in parts, and the gentler side of many of these musical excursions makes for a pleasant album that merges with the early 90s stages of these bands, like the Cakekitchen, dominated by other New Zealand musical prodigies who attempted bands but kept winding up their sole founding members soon enough!
Such a presence, for Jefferies as for Graeme Downes and Martin Phillipps, does not weaken what's on record, but there is a tendency to fall into a typical down-tempo mood, or a mid-tempo pace, that leaves the more commercial phases of all three bands/leaders more for the already converted New Zealand rock fan, or for newcomers scared off by the harsher and more dissonant sound textures that Jefferies explores in his more ambitious albums. This one feels more like the seaside on a balmy day, rather than the stormier twilight of other records.
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