The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 710

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Number 710 - Mutton Birds

Number 710

Mutton Birds

"Nature"

(1992)

Genre:Alt Rock

"Nature" is a remake of an old hippy New Zealand song from the 1960's, in fact the original version is as equally important in the "History of New Zealand rock" and probably should be here in this chart instead of The Mutton Birds version. Why The Mutton Birds version then? Simple, i like this version better!

On their 1992 debut, this New Zealand rock group was the vehicle for the extraordinary songwriting skills of Don McGlashan, a mainstay of the New Zealand pop scene who was as ubiquitous with artsy post-punk as Chris Knox in his homeland during the '80s. With this group he went for a total "Kiwiana" aesthetic with a strikingly topical lyric-writing approach that set them apart from the often-oblique sound of anti-podean avant rock.

A good comparison for this album would be with the work of Australian songsmiths the Go-Betweens and Paul Kelly, who mine similar oblique themes of daily life and transform them into eloquent, poetic pop music. The quartet went mainstream in New Zealand and Australia with a unique sound which falls somewhere between the crafty, FM-friendly songwriting of Neil Finn and Dave Dobbyn and the edgy alternative guitar rock sound of the Clean, Chills, and Verlaines. "Dominion Road," "A Thing Well Made," and "She's Like a City" exhibit McGlashan at his best and the uncanny appropriation of the '60s psychedelic hit "Nature" is a standout track with a catchy refrain originally recorded by New Zealand pop godfathers the Fourmyula. The Mutton Birds' album was recorded in a low-tech 16-track studio and in a practice room by the band, giving it a unique lo-fi ambience that characterized the sound of New Zealand rock and comes highly recommended to fans of the Flying Nun scene. ~ [Skip Jansen]
For Dave Dobbyn see Number 727
For Th' Dudes see Numbers 861, 803, 538 & MM Vol 2 #139