Skip to main content

Age Pryor :: Shanks' Pony

May is New Zealand Music Month! For the rest of May, Jamie will review NZ bands, attend (and subsequently write about) NZ shows, and generally give attention to some of the greatest bands you've never heard of.

I was surprised by this album. Surprised, for one, that there was an album at all. Pryor, up until a few weeks ago, had existed mostly behind the scenes, such as his involvement in the delightful Fly My Pretties venture. While he sporadically bobbed to the surface--as with his inclusion in the late A Low Hum CD + Magazine collective and on the soundtrack to Eagle vs. Shark--his was a name reserved for the lips of kids most indie (indie kids in an indie city in an indie country in an indie hemisphere--honestly, New Zealand is so indie it sometimes makes me a little queasy).

But here it is, Age Pryor's album, Shanks' Pony. And there I WASN'T--at his CD release party at Wellington's Mighty Mighty. For weeks I kicked myself and cringed whenever I talked to someone who attended. How could I have missed it? I loved Age Pryor (well, I loved the one track I had from my A Low Hum CD)! I finally bought Shanks' Pony at the beginning of NZ music month, burned it to my iPod, and listened straight through. My first reaction: Huh.

I was, as I said before, surprised. Unlike aforementioned loved track (Eyes Rarely Meet), Shanks' Pony is incredibly well-produced. This is, indeed, a compliment and not indie crybaby criticism. The album is polished and sounds beautiful. It's just that the songs are, well--odd. From the folk-drifter ballads of opener I Don't Want and King of You All, through the upbeat sing-a-longs like title track Shanks' Pony and Plastic Lady to Latin-inspired Unhappy Son, I found it difficult to glean a cohesive vibe from the piece. As soon as I settled into the mood of a track, Pryor abruptly shifted genres in the subsequent song, only to change back a few songs later.

However, Pryor is a talented singer-songwriter. His musicality coupled with his unique lisp (think Isaac Brock meets Stuart Murdoch) provides each track a signature setting it apart from the others. But when every track stands in contrast against every other track, you compromise the album. Admittedly, there are some gorgeous songs on Shanks' Pony. In fact, all the songs are good. There isn't a track I could fault on a individual level; they simply don't work together. Shanks's Pony sounds less like a debut album than it does a collection of b-sides.

Artist :: Age Pryor

Album :: Shanks' Pony

Recommend as a collection of singles

Song :: King of You All


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Celebrate Halloween with Peter Squires's New Video, "Witch"

I don't usually do festive or holiday posts. In fact, the closest I get is writing some kind of seasonal bent against a track, and only then when I've had too much coffee and can't find any relation to a song other than what the weather is doing. I just think holiday-themed posts / articles are lazy. But Halloween is different. Why? Because Halloween, to paraphrase Wesley Willis, whips a horse's ass. So when Ryan from The Musebox put me on to Peter Squires a few days ago, I knew it was going into the annals of Duck & Cover (that's right, I said "annals" on the Internets). From the Press Release: Peter’s direct and honest vocal delivery is reminiscent of contemporaries such as Kimya Dawson and Luke Temple. The album is all heart, laid bare for our aural pleasure. Woe Is Me was recorded in Peter Squires’ Brooklyn bedroom and is available on his website for fans to download at no charge. The first video from the album is “Witch” and it was just rele...

The Pogues + The Dubliners = St. Patrick's Rovers

In celebration of St. Patrick's day, and because I spent a good deal of time living on Ireland's west coast (if you can call Limerick a coast), here's an old video of The Pogues and The Dubliners singing "Irish Rover." I love the fact that Shane MacGowan is puffing away at a rollie on stage--and I'm pretty sure it's not water in that styrofoam cup. This video reminds me of a musician I palled around with during my stint in stab city. A mesmerizing performer, Damo would often celebrate the fact he scored a gig before the gig itself. When it was time for him to go on, he would be completely trollied; too drunk for his own performance (which, if you knew Damo, you would concede is no small feat). Damn, I miss those guys.

All New Mix Tape Thanks to Yahoo!!

That's one exclamation point for Yahoo!, and one for me shouting The developers at Yahoo! have been ever so kind to the web community, of which Dakin and I (collectively known as Duck & Cover, for you newbies [although I was never certain who was Duck and who was Cover. Maybe I was meant to be the ampersand.]) are proud members. You may recall a while back I posted our grief with SeeqPod , which we had been using to construct mixes of musical magic for our dedicated readers/listeners. Well, Yahoo! came to the rescure by developing a JavaScript-driven mp3 player. I emphasize JavaScript here to note the differece between this new player (which you may have noticed by now on the left) and previous, Flash-driven players. People need to download Flash, you see, and even though most internet users already have it, requiring readers to download software just to see your blog is not a nice thing. Not only is the Yahoo! player accessible, it's also free--which is a very nice thing...