Journey Through The Past 27 : Toy Love - My Pick for Best New Zealand Album

I could easily make the case that this is New Zealand's best album of all time.  Toy Love only existed for a little over two short years.  In that time they made two great pop/punk/new wave singles played some great gigs - I am pleased to say that I saw them 4 or 5 times - and released this great album.  They also kicked off what was to be known as the Dunedin or Flying Nun sound.  Even though they never recorded for the label.

This summary of the band;s history from Pitchfork is as good a summary as what you will get of the band. I first became aware of them when they released the great double A side single Rebel/Squeeze.  After that I bought the next single and also this great slab of black vinyl.

I find it sad that the band were never happy with the finished sound of this record, recorded with Todd Hunter from Dragon in Australia. They claimed it was too clean and poppy and not rough enough.

However sometimes you have to disagree with the artist and they need to accept that they are WRONG. This is a great and historic album and perhaps the best ever by a NZ band.  I always felt it seemed to have an infatuation with, if not a theme of death with tracks like Death Rehearsal, Pull Down the Shades and Swimming Pool   However there are other great songs in there as well with Bride of Frankenstein and  I don't Mind.

Chris Knox's love of 60's pop shines through in terms of melodies and the underlying arrangements, In NZ he went on to almost icon status with his media commentaries, cartoons and of course Tall Dwarfs - writing one of NZ's favourite songs in Not Given Lightly.  But Toy Love is where it all began.