Barb - BARB Reviewed
September 18th 2010 08:32
NZ's Finest: Seamus Ebbs, Connan Mockasin, Eliza-Jane Barnes, Liam Finn, and Lawrence Arabia
Barb is a New Zealand super-group made up of five of the country's modern-day indie darlings, Liam Finn, Connan Mockasin, James Milne a.k.a Lawrence Arabia, Eliza-Jane Barnes, and Seamus Ebbs. This, their self-titled debut album, is the long-awaited result of years of trying to find the time to record a bunch of tracks. However, Liam Finn has said that this is "hopefully not just a one-off record."
BARB: Rating....7.5/10
Tracklist
1. Leo
2. Alcoholic Darling
3. Not A Bird
4. Please Don't Interrupt
5. Martin XII
6. Time To Contemplate
7. Beatman
8. Counting Sheep
9. 2004
10. Characterful
11. Nile
12. Looking Out Through Barb's Eyes
1. Leo
2. Alcoholic Darling
3. Not A Bird
4. Please Don't Interrupt
5. Martin XII
6. Time To Contemplate
7. Beatman
8. Counting Sheep
9. 2004
10. Characterful
11. Nile
12. Looking Out Through Barb's Eyes
BARB is a collection of psychedelic indie songs by some of NZ's finest musicians. The five of them are all larrikins and good friends, which comes out when listening to the music. They quite obviously had a lot of fun making the record and don't take themselves too seriously. The song, Counting Sheep, Liam said he and Connan wrote after an unsuccessful night of seeking random hook-ups. Connan, certainly the wackiest member, wrote the song, Leo, (which incidentally has one of the most fucked up film clips ever!) from the point-of-view of his 4-year-old alter-ego, Don, about Leonardo DiCaprio. He also did some very interesting album artwork, including one picture with the caption "Me & Liam having a threesome." Outside of the antics, he has a strange voice that draws the listener into the music on tracks such as Please Don't Interrupt and interspersed with a great hot bluesy guitar riff in Nile. All five members share vocal duties, and it is a pleasure to listen when they all sing in harmony, with EJ Barnes providing a much needed female voice. To say the instruments (particularly guitars) are interesting would be a complete understatement. The guitar sounds are adjusted for each individual song to great effect.
Put simply, this is an album that you cannot prepare your ears for: you must hear it in full multiple times before judgement is passed. This, I have now done, and would like to hear more of!
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