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Rating: In the geographic-sentimental atlas of quality pop enthusiasts, New Zealand, especially the one straddling the '80s and '90s, is a well-marked place, another one of those "paradises" often viewed with a certain nostalgia, not infrequently letting out a slight sigh.
Just utter the word "kiwi rock", and many of them, myself included, are overwhelmed by melodies, imagining that utopian island at the antipodes where, for a certain period, yet another epiphany of the "lennonmccartneysound" occurred, this time grafted onto an oblique and lush guitar rock, like the enchanted nature of its land of origin (who doesn't remember the images from Jane Campion's film "The Piano"?). Bands like 'The Verlains', 'The Bats', 'Crowded House', 'The Chills', all originating from the Maori islands, added another piece to the ever-evolving shiny edifice of the perfect pop song.
'The Chills', in particular, in 1990 with "Submarine Bells" created, if not the best work of that genre rich in important and unrecognized albums, certainly the most representative one that condenses, as best as possible, all the main characteristics of "kiwi": sustainable lightness, sunny openings alternating with more shadowy atmospheres, sudden new wave electric bursts, sometimes impressionist writing rich in chiaroscuro.
To all this, they add a marked environmentalist sensitivity testified by some lyrics from the group's songwriter Martin Phillipps, the appeals in the booklet against the notorious French nuclear tests in Polynesia, and the splendid photos on the cover of gigantic oceanic jellyfish, a species threatened by destructive fishing methods, the "submarine bells" of the title, which still "resound" in the depths, sounding the alarm for the Planet.
The album opens with one of the freshest and most airy singles not only of New Zealand pop but of the entire '90s production, "Heavenly Pop Hit", a small marvel, with an organ and truly "heavenly" choirs. The track, cleverly placed at the beginning, acts as a lure. Anyone venturing into the album expecting a series of simple enjoyment songs will be disappointed or surprised. Other strings are touched; other inner landscapes, other delectable musical references will unfold before them. Already with "Tied Up In Chain", Hitchcockian influences and references to early 'REM' are perceivable. "I SOAR" has a vaguely bucolic flavor, an Australasian folk of notable suggestion, a slow implosion.
In "Familiarity Breeds Contempt", Phillipps' guitar work guides the group atop the "new wave" crest. "Effloresce & Deliquesce", on the other hand, sharpens a psychedelic attitude that, nevertheless, is widely perceived throughout the album and links them to their more famous Australian "cousins", 'The Church'.
The title track that closes the work is a kind of aquatic lullaby, a whispered hymn to the marine depths, with sounds and tones that seem to come from another dimension.
"Deep and dark my submarine / bells groan in green and gray / Mine would chine a thousand times / to make you feel okay..."
Follow the chimes of these liquid bells: new, fascinating, and mysterious musical lands might be drawn on your map as explorers of emotions.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Heavenly Pop Hit (03:28)
Each evening the sun sets in five billion places
Seen by ten billion eyes
Set in five billion faces
Then they close in a daze and wait for the dawing
But the daylight and sunrise are brighter in our eyes
Where night cannot devour golden solar power
Once we were dammned, now I guess we are angels
For we passed though the dark and avoided the dangers
Then awoke with a start, to startling changes
All the tension is ended
The sentance, suspended
And darkenss now sparkles and gleams
And it all seems larger than life to me
I find it rather hard to believe
And so I stand as the sound goes straight through my body
I'm so bloated up happy I can throw things around me
And I'm growing in stages and have been for ages
Just singing and floating and free
Doh (dum dum de da deda da, dum dum de da deda da)
Ooh (dum dum de da deda da)
Dum de dum dum, dum de dum dum
Its a heavenly pop hit, if anyone wants it (ah)
Doh (dum dum de da deda da, dum dum de da deda da)
Ooh (dum dum de da deda da)
Dum de dum dum, dum de dum dum
Its a heavenly pop hit
Its something that we're humming
As we swoop low on trees or we sweep under carpets
We can dive into suns though it's not recommended
We can hover, silent, and listen, closely
It all seems (all seems)
Larger than life to me
I find it (find it)
Hard to believe
So where was our home?
Well, our home was in tears
For it's fruit has gone bad
They'd been that way for years
Yet their lives are elsatic
They should be fantastic
They should be expanding
Doh (dum dum de da deda da, dum dum de da deda da)
Ooh (dum dum de da deda da)
Dum de dum dum, dum de dum dum
Its a heavenly pop hit, if anyone wants it (ah)
Doh (dum dum de da deda da, dum dum de da deda da)
Ooh (dum dum de da deda da)
Dum de dum dum, dum de dum dum
It's a heavenly pop hit, for anybody
For those that still want it
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04 Part Past Part Fiction (02:56)
Sitting in a foriegn setting
Bands in backgrounds always play
Their phoney lonely cacaphony
It didnt have to be this way
Some place alone, yeah yeah
And no one known, yeah yeah
So far from home here, yeah yeah, yeah yeah
Oohh oohhh, ooohh
I really didn't choose to leave you
To tear myself away so long
To travel and unravel all the fabric we'd sewn
So now something's wrong
And the world we used to know has gone
Some place alone, yeah yeah
And no one known, yeah yeah
So far from home here, yeah yeah
Years of awkward confrontation
I'd like to set your mind at ease
But stuck here in these muddled ages
I find the words won't please
Where could we dwell
Within our past alive and well
Escape from all that's hard to bear
To where the child that you were creeps near, without fear
Scary things aren't always clear
To hide in fiction and nostalgia can be eerie too
You cannot drive and stare rearview
Oohh oohhh, ooohh
Some place alone, yeah yeah
And no one known, yeah yeah
So far from home here, yeah yeah, yeah yeah
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10 Effloresce and Deliquesce (02:45)
Effloresce and deliquesce, carefree sparkling effervesce
Sparks ignite the starry-eyed, soon a supernova
Effloresce and deliquesce
He bursts froth and then regrets
She brakes down and when he goes slowly ices over
Effloresce and deliquesce
She may weep but he knows best
Crystallize before his eyes
Tears can't conquer power
Now they're acting, watch this happening
Then undergo change to tease the other
Now they're fighting, this part's frightening
Lies are flying
The silence boiled over
Over-reaching
Se them trying
Counter-acting changes in each other
Other forces force them higher
Tears are scalding
Anger flows like fire
Effloresce and deliquesce
She burst forth and then regrets
He breaks down and when she goes slowly ices over
Effloresce and deliquesce
He is weary, needing rest
She is too but in an hour thy burst into flower
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