We made it

Six60 - Right Here Right Now (2026) ***,

Nominated by: KS

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: We Made It

Six60 is a pop rock band from Aotearoa. They are a big deal in NZ with the younger crowd, plus Kevy and mos probs GK as well! Previously, I have had them pegged as a boy band but they are actually four musicians - Matiu Walters (lead vocals, guitar), Ji Fraser (lead guitar), Chris Mac (drums, bass guitar), and Marlon Gerbes (guitar, bass guitar, synths).

Matiu has a sweet R&B delivery that is a bit like Bruno Mars at times (opening track Don't Talk is a case in point). While I really like that opening song, overall, I tend to prefer the jazzier, more experimental style of Fat Freddy's Drop to the pop-oriented approach of Six60.

Six60's debut album is a pretty straight-forward pop/rock album. After that they embraced synth-pop and now they've changed tack completely.

They have definitely embraced reggae as a genre on Right Here Right Now and that gives a sameness to the songs. Depends on your p.o.v. whether that's a weakness or a strength. As I said, I prefer the more varied approach from similar Nu Zild bands like L.A.B, Fat Freddy's Drop, and Katchafire.

Highlights for me all come early - Don't Talk, We Are Kings and Hurricane would be the three standouts for me. Plus, Father's Eyes is catchy and deals with anger and violence (like Red Mist) but presents things as a cautionary tale which feels like an important message for the band's audience. 

The lowlights - Red Mist - I have a problem with a jaunty style being used to create a very mixed picture of domestic violence. The male character is almost presented in heroic terms before we get to the line about using his fists. I skipped this one each time. Same Dirt - the drum sound immediately turned me off, and I found the lyrics a little trite.  

A mixed bag for me then, but the positives outweigh the negative - hence the three stars/ pretty fine rating.

The geese and the ghost

Anthony Phillips - The Geese and the Ghost (1977) ***

Nominated by: Tom Snr

Music club: MNAC

MNAC playlist addition:  Sleepfall: The Geese Fly West

I did a double take when Tom selected this album. It's quite unlike his usual fare - yes, he recently opted for a Mike Oldfield opus, but generally, I didn't have him pegged as a connoisseur of prog rock in general, and Genesis style prog rock in particular.

Anthony Phillips was once the lead guitarist in Genesis, albeit briefly. He left the band in 1970, after their Trespass album, to pursue a solo career.

After taking some time to improve his musicianship, The Geese and the Ghost was his first solo album in 1977. Apparently, it's pretty close to the sound Genesis were all about on Trespass (I have plenty of Genesis albums but not that one) and both Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins appear on the album. 

The Geese and the Ghost is a very arty album, and it sounds luvverly, but there's not a lot of substance to the material, I find. So, it floats on by effortlessly. Some will call it beguiling, but it doesn't really engage me especially - although I do have a copy on vinyl, and I do play it from time to time after a hard day at the brick factory.

Highlights for me are Sleepfall and God If I Saw Her Now.

Holds

Pile - Sunshine and Balance Beams (2025) ****

Nominated by: Alex

Music club: MNAC

MNAC playlist addition:  Uneasy

If there was an ever an album that grew on me with repeated listens, this is it. It has been a three week process - mainly because life got hectic (my fellow MNAC members will relate) and I had to keep listening in snatches. 

For a start I was in the meh camp. The lead guy's yelly vocals doing kind of tourettes moves at odd times didn't draw me in necessarily, but after a while (plays 3 to 4) I started to ignore it and the cranked up noise started to get me.

After plays 5 and 6 I started to hear fragments of lyrics that I started looking forward to and low and behold - plays 7 and 8 grabbed me by the lapels, threw me up against the wall and I yelled back - Waaaaaauuuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

The choice of a highlighted song even became difficult. I kept swinging between the noisy ones and the quieter ones. Eventually settled on Uneasy but I loved Holds as well. Born at Night also came close - I like a good venting.

Great stuff Alex. I'd never heard of Pile but they ended up an exciting new discovery.

Hideaway

Michael Franks - Tiger in the Rain (1979) ***

Nominated by: GK

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: Jardin Botanico

Michael Franks albums were an occasional seller when I worked at Marbecks Records in the Queen's Arcade during my holiday breaks. Not so much Tiger in the Rain (his fifth), but definitely his second and third albums The Art of Tea and Sleeping Gypsy - that smooth jazz sound was quite popular with the trendy white forty somethings who came into the shop. The Michael Franks records oozed adulthood!

Roger Marbeck filed all the spare records via labels - so he could find them easily and quickly know what was needed to be ordered from the reps when they visited. Made restocking shelves tricky though because you needed to know what label an artist was on to find them. It was easier the more you restocked which was one of my jobs.

If I close my eyes I can 'see' the shelf in the shop where all the Reprise albums were stored (including Franks) because I rifled through it often to file records, and find records for myself (I took my pay in records), but also there was something cool about that label (and Warner Bros.) so I loved to gaze at the various covers and play items on those labels in the shop when I had a chance.  

At the time I was a real music snob and Michael Franks records were about the uncoolest things I could think of in the years after punk rock exploded, so I only heard them when a customer requested one. He equaled 'meh' for me back then.

Fast forward 45 years and the music snob has departed and been (largely) replaced thanks to an eclectic music collection.

I can now appreciate Franks' music - smooth jazz vocals with a tropicana bent that is perfect for a blazing hot day in Central Hawke's Bay. Given that I'm generally not a fan of smooth jazz vocals with a tropicana bent, I didn't mind a lot of Tiger in the Rain. It's certainly a good antidote for the fast-paced pre-Christmas build-up as GK intended.

Still - he walks a tightrope between positive and negative for me. Some examples may shed light on that statement:

Positive - Jardin Botanico and the title track (light and breezy in a good way with nice melodies and a laid-back groove via strings, vibraphone and sax).

Negative - Underneath the Apple Tree (neither one thing nor the other so comes off as twee).

Maybe that 22-year-old me (from 1979) is still lurking in there somewhere. That said, the 68-year-old me was happy to play this three times in a row and enjoy it for what it is - smooth jazz vocals with a tropicana bent that is perfect for a blazing hot day.

Treasure

Aldous Harding - Designer (2019) ***

Nominated by: KS

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: The Barrel

My musical antennae tingled when I saw Aldous Harding on Later...with Jools Holland some years ago. She seemed to be in her own world. I get that same feeling whenever I catch a performance of hers on TV (check out her version of The Barrel on Jimmy Fallon). She's a one off.

Although she's a kiwi, she seems to be from another planet when performing/playing/singing (she has a lot of different voices). Interestingly, she has previously collaborated with Fenne Lily who I chose for an AOTW recently. You can understand why - they are both singular indie-folk artists.

While I love that Fenne Lily album, I can't actually commit to Aldous. I have flirted with the idea of buying her albums, but something has held me back each time.

Highlights: Fixture Picture; Designer, The Barrel, Weight of the Planets (yes - the more up-tempo numbers, where she also experiments a bit with sound). Aside from those, Treasure is sung beautifully - I like the voice she uses on this song, and the simple piano accompaniment is sympathetic and effective.

I've often thought that I should listen to her albums more, so thanks for that Kevy!

 

No other love

Chuck Prophet - No Other Love (2002) ***

Nominated by: GK

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: Summertime Thing

Chuck Prophet has been around for a while, starting out in a cow-punk band in the mid-eighties. I liked his stuff with Green on Red, much like I enjoyed other cow punks like Jason and The Scorchers (who tellingly cover a couple of Dylan songs superbly). I lost track of him in his solo years pretty much and then, bam, GK opts for Chuck's 2002 album - No Other Love.

Okay - a digression - regarding British folk and American folk. 

GK mentioned that he chose this following my Roy Harper selection and mentioned his proclivity for American folk acts. In a shock horror divergence of taste - I have a definite leaning towards the British variety and the Canadian variety (Bruce Cockburn, Neil Young, Joni, Gordy). Of course, I also love American folk artists like Joan Baez, Woody, and Dylan, but there is something earthy, tradition based (the medieval base), and authentic about British folk artists that I find particularly appealing. Some of my favourites - Steeleye Span, June Tabor, Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins, Nick Drake, Donovan, Billy Bragg, Ian Matthews, Strawbs, Al Stewart, Lindisfarne, The Waterboys and, yes - Roy Harper. 

Chuck Prophet? Is he a folk artist? Americana - yes (he seems to combine country, pop, electronica), Alt-country? Sure. But I wouldn't have put him in the folk, or even folk-rock genres.

I also find him very derivative. It's like he's put Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Nilsson, Tom Waits, Glen Campbell, and Kris Kristofferson (double helping of KK) into a blender. I hear the starts of loads of songs in his intros and in his vocal inflections.

Frinstance - I Bow Down to Every Woman I See - take some coconuts from Harry, mix in some ode to Bobby Joe and stir. Then add in some J. J. Cale style lopping beat - pop in the blender and bingo. It's no wonder GK loves this album.

Now I also love all of those influences, but the echoes tend to divide my attention. My ears prick up, pick away at the various strands, and bug me - where have I heard that before? That's How Much I Need Your Love's component parts are nagging away at me as I write.

Even the album title is slightly derivative of Gene Clark's seminal No Other. I guess it's a complment?

At times it sounds like the Everly brothers mixed in with some Highway 61 era Dylan. At times it's Chuck singing over the top of a Ennio Morricone soundtrack. At others it's like The Travelling Wilburys with Prophet doing the vocals. If Bob and Jeff need a new member Chuck Wilbury is their man.

The highlight for me is Summertime Thing. It evokes the summertime mood up brilliantly, tells a vague story in a laid back summer way, doesn't have anything that nags at me, is catchy, has some tasty pedal steel, and references The Beach Boys in a transparent fashion. 

I think I'll end there on a positive note. Chuck is good, but Chuck could be more original for my taste. Now, where's that Al Stewart album?

Hooked

Hello Sailor - Hello Sailor  (1977) *****

Nominated by: KS

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: Blue Lady

At the time (1977), I was more a Split Enz/ Citizen Band fan (The Beatle influenced locals) than a dedicated follower of Hello Sailor (more in the Rolling Stones camp), so in my collection I only have this album and memories of seeing them at The Windsor Castle with Mike and Greg. Oh, and a bootleg cassette that Kevy's brother made at Westlake Girls.

 

This was the band's debut album and it distills all that is best about the band - Faces/Stones style guitar riff-a-ramas, attitude songs about the down and out underbelly of Auckland life, and in lead singer Graham Brazier they had a genuine rawk staaar. His vocals are immediately distinctive.

They were far from a one trick pony though as Dave McArtney and Harry Lyons were also talented singers, songwriters and musicians ('is' in Harry's case as he's still with us - McArtney and Brazier both died far too young). Ricky Ball (from Ticket - one of my favourite NZ bands) was also a key ingredient with his powerful drumming and Lisle Kinney added the meaty bass lines.

Interesting that Gutter Black (the lead off song on side one) has over 11 million listens on Spotify and Blue Lady only has 4 mill. Maybe that's because Gutter Black was featured in a NZ TV programme (Outrageous Fortune) but 7 million more plays? and Blue Lady is easily a better song.

The other songs are deeply ingrained in my musical consciousness. I've lived with these songs for a loooong time!

Five stars? Oh yes! A Nu Zild classic!