More of it

Leigh Nash - Blue on Blue (2006) ****

Nominated by: GK

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: Along the Wall

I have a case of deja vu all over again with this album. I feel like I've heard it before as one of GK's nominations. A quick search of this blog indicates that neither Leigh Nash nor her old band (Sixpence None the Richer) have appeared. Maybe it's Little Birdy or Macy Gray I'm thinking of?

GK is sure keen on those types of singers and all power to him and all who sail in him. I'm not so much inclined, but that's also hunky dory. 

I think it's the vocal inflections Leigh Nash uses from time to time - that kind of almost helium delivery that tends to creep in. It makes me think she's quite young (thanks to that and the cover image) but in fact she's closing in on 50 these days.

This one is her debut and it's a strong one too. The first three tracks - Along the Wall, Nervous in the Light of Dawn, My Idea of Heaven - are crackers (as Kevy would say). Thanks to that start, I knew I'd enjoy the album, but would I love it (or list it)? Would I love the album enough to buy a physical copy?

The answer, ultimately, is - yes - dammit - I may even love this album! The more I heard it, the more I leaned in that direction. Between the Lines sealed it and meant that despite my reservations about the vocal inflections at times, I became a fanboy.

Do I love the album enough to buy a physical copy? That would be a no, I don't love it enough to buy a copy. That said, I fully enjoyed the experience and I can confirm that she turned me around the more I listened to it. Nice one GK.

Pianos and mushrooms

Voom - Something Good Is Happening (2025) ***

Nominated by: KS

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: Crazy Feeling

I have Voom's previous album (Hello, Are You There?) which came out almost 20 years ago! Buzz Moller is the only original member left in a band that started in the early 1990s.

This latest album (only their third) is catchy and infectious as all get out for the most part. There are some weird moments that don't quite work as well (hello Nightmare Man, Pianos and Mushrooms).

I guess it's a bit hodge-podge, it must be said. Given the massive gap between albums, it's inevitable that some older material gets reworked. That's not ideal if the aim is a cohesive album that is recorded in one hit out, with the same musicians.

That said, it is what it is and, for the most part, this is a triumph in a lo-fi NZ number 8 fencing wire tradition.

Cold fact

Rodriguez - Searching for Sugar Man (2012) ***

Nominated by: GK

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: Inner City Blues

I have the DVD of the film - Searching for Sugar Man. The basic idea is two South African super fans try to find out whether Rodriquez (who was a huge selling artist in SA) is alive and if so where he is. 

The soundtrack to the film is what we're all about here though. Here's an interesting idea for you (Schrödinger's cat style) - If Rodriguez was placed in a sealed box with his fate tied to the existence of Bob Dylan - could he also be considered to exist?

That is - if Bob didn't exist - would we ever have known about the existence of Rodriguez and myriads of other singer-songwriters. It's a dilly of a pickled paradox.

I'm not sure where the appeal for South Africans came from. Maybe in a country pretty much isolated from the rest of the world, they never heard any of Dylan's albums (or Neil Young, or James Taylor, or Cat Stevens).

Rodriguez's music is interesting - of its time (1970 - 1971) certainly, and his poetic sensibilities can be a tad off-putting at times but somehow his sincerity saves the day. So, although he sounds derivative, he also ends up sounding uniquely Rodriguez. It's another bizarre paradox.

The soundtrack is a combo of his two official albums, plus an unreleased third album, so it doesn't sound particularly cohesive and the stray moments where he mentions faggots are best skipped over. 

I tend to prefer the tracks from his 1970 debut - Cold Fact, even though it's not produced as well (another paradox).

Okay, back into that locked box for Sixto Rodriguez.

BTW - yes, he was alive and he was tracked down to his American home in Detroit. He passed away in 2023.