Dead Famous People – Harry

Fire

For some extraordinary reason, it has taken thirty years for Dons Savage to follow up the seminal early work of Dead Famous People with a full length album. Fire Records tracked her down and put her in the studio where it seems the years just dropped away. Her knack for perfect melody and succinct pop bite is now aligned with the sort of precise production and baroque layering that one might hear from the likes of Eric Matthews and Cardinal.

There is a shimmering sweetness and a kind of joie de vivre that emanates from the tracks on Harry, even though the lyrics may not necessarily be that upbeat. The first track “Looking At Girls”, for example, juxtaposes a tale of a car crash due to the protagonist looking at girls as he drove, with a sweeping string-laden backdrop and insistent guitar strum. Her slightly weary croon is an interesting instrument, delivering the lines in a way that is hard to ignore and with a warmth in their depth but that still contains something of that ’80s New Zealand vibe.

The album is another of those just out of time summery records that rings with sunshine and blue skies, the constant shimmer of something like a Fender Rhodes swirling in the background like surf around your feet. The colours are pale like bright sunshine filtered through golden hair, and the radiant harmonies that appear over the course of the album are an angelic counterpoint to Dons’ more worldly voice. There are also echoes of Magnetic Fields, particularly in the melancholic lullaby of “Dead Birds Eye” with its “I’m sorry, mother” refrain and sweet, sweet guitar riff.

Harry is a nice combination of Sarah Records and classic Flying Nun with a touch of the Go-Betweens, but it can never fail to be positive. The squeezebox on “The Great Unknown” is a delight, but all the pieces are so sweet and succinct that it is almost over after thirty minutes, with just the stark piano melancholy of “Harry” to lull us to a conclusion.

The album is quite a feat considering the length of its gestation, but it was well worth the effort.

-Mr Olivetti-