\nGreen MP Steve Abel: Love Songs by the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience<\/p>\n
On the final day of New Zealand Music Month, MPs from across the political spectrum tell The Spinoff about their most beloved homegrown records.<\/p>\n
Green Party co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick: Successor by Anthonie Tonnon\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to choose something rap or hip hop, and it\u2019s hard not to choose something from T\u0101maki Makaurau (or Dick Move\u2019s Dream, Believe, Achieve\u2026 Up the bus, up the nurses), but if I have to choose one local album of all time, I always find myself coming back to the lyricism of Tonno.<\/p>\n
Like, show me anything else that manages to package investigative journalism in poetic lyricism about the interconnected crises of democracy (overridden by National minister Nick Smith), water quality, housing and regional rail. The opening lines of the album (and my favourite song on it, \u2018Railway Lines\u2019) are, \u2018They\u2019re electrifying the train lines \/ Putting public art on the bridges\u2026’\u201d<\/p>\n
National arts, culture and heritage minister Paul Goldsmith: I\u2019m Home by Te Wehi<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere does one start? Currently I\u2019m listening to Te Wehi, I\u2019m quite enjoying that. I just like it, I like the East Coast sort of sound, as it were. So that\u2019s one I\u2019m listening to. I like Diggy Dup\u00e9, that\u2019s another one, a central Auckland rapster. He\u2019s pretty good too. I go along to these things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Goldsmith. (Photo: Hagen Hopkins\/Getty Images)
\nGreen MP Steve Abel: Love Songs by the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a cruel question. I could choose many [favourite albums] but will pay tribute to one of which I\u2019m especially fond: the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience\u2019s Long Songs. It\u2019s an unforgivable cliche to pick a Flying Nun album from the 80s. It\u2019s from when I played vinyl back-to-back of an evening. This is an uncontrived vibe of its time that I first encountered \u2013 like most things \u2013 through 95bFM. \u2018I Like Rain\u2019 quintessentially captures the Aotearoa weatherboard existence: hunkering indoors while it drizzles or pours.\u201d<\/p>\n
National attorney-general Chris Bishop: Killjoy by Shihad<\/p>\n
\u201cKilljoy is my favourite record. Not just by a Kiwi artist, but by any artist. It\u2019s the record that unites genuine, hardcore Shihad fans. I\u2019ve been in Shihad mosh pits since 1998, and there\u2019s always a couple of people wearing a Killjoy T-shirt. They know its power, and when your sweaty eyes lock together in a mosh pit, there\u2019s always a moment of recognition. Sometimes people realise I\u2019m a politician and there\u2019s often a look of surprise; sometimes they don\u2019t. It really doesn\u2019t matter. The music is what matters.<\/p>\n
Killjoy is Shihad at their best. It\u2019s intensely heavy. Wall of sound guitars, drenched in feedback. They just keep coming and coming, and when you think they\u2019re over and you get a respite, they hit you again. But it\u2019s almost hypnotically melodic as well. In their own unique Shihad way the songs are laden with hooks that stick in your head, that you hum for hours.\u201d (Read Bishop\u2019s full Killjoy review here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Oriini Kaipara: Aotearoa Songbook by Te Tira Waiata o Te Pukawai<\/p>\n \u201cThis album is a classic! From the array of M\u0101ori hits with correct lyrics to the incredible ensemble, this album never fails to lift my wairua and take me to my happy place.\u201d<\/p>\n Labour MP Reuben Davidson: Baby Heavyweight by Delaney Davidson (to be released on June 26)<\/p>\n \u201cNot just because he\u2019s my much older brother, but actually because I\u2019m constantly in awe of where he takes our ears, and how calming it is to listen to on those bumpy ATR flights into Wellington.\u201d<\/p>\n National commerce minister Cameron Brewer: Traction by Supergroove<\/p>\n