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Gin Wigmore, part of NZ\u2019s musical furniture, and, left, Lenny Kaye releases his debut solo album at age 79. Photos \/ Nina Roxburgh \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Beautiful Mess<\/p>\n
by Gin Wigmore<\/p>\n
\n Eight years after her previous album and fully 16 since her multi-platinum debut Holy Smoke \u2013 which picked up 2010\u2019s album of the year, best pop album, breakthrough artist and highest-selling artist \u2013 Gin Wigmore returns with this collection of jaded country-pop, reflective ballads
\n and stadium rockers.\n <\/p>\n
Wigmore \u2013 currently running Wigmore Deli in Auckland\u2019s Kingsland \u2013 has much to draw on for this fourth studio album: years in the States (at one point running a hotel she and then-husband Jason Butler renovated), two children, divorce, interrupted recording schedules and a return home.<\/p>\n
The album foregrounds country-influenced pop in the first \u201cBeautiful\u201d half, with autobiographical narratives threaded through, as on the power ballad Our Street about youthful love, the loss of innocence and finding her way back home.<\/p>\n
Here, too, is the weary Hollywood, referencing time in that kingdom of broken dreams dealing with distance and loneliness: \u201cMama I feel so far away from you \u2026 don\u2019t you worry I won\u2019t lose myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sense of unsettled impermanence, longing and disappointment (the downbeat country of Die on this Porch) colours these songs.<\/p>\n
The album gets more expansive in the \u201cMess\u201d half with the edgy title track: \u201cI\u2019d follow you down to the end of the earth with your valley of lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the shouty banger Rodeo, about being free of a relationship, and the bristling pop of I Like It with \u201cI know you\u2019re a bad boy \u2026 I\u2019m good at making babies too \u2026 I want you,\u201d these are the guitar rock songs.<\/p>\n
And she closes the album with Here Comes the Girls, a slab of noisy New Wave.<\/p>\n
Wigmore\u2019s distinctive, weather-battered voice carries the soulful ache at the front end and the rawness later, and she says its revealing vulnerability took courage, \u201cand I\u2019m really proud that I haven\u2019t let courage disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the first half cathartic and the second sounding urgent and desperate, it\u2019s another album that demands you be as invested in the artist\u2019s life as they are.<\/p>\n
![\"These]()
These albums are available digitally, on\u00a0CD and vinyl. Images \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Goin\u2019 Local<\/p>\n
by Lenny Kaye<\/p>\n
Few musicians release an album that changes the rock music landscape, and fewer still an album they don\u2019t appear on.<\/p>\n
Lenny Kaye \u2013 rock critic, producer and guitarist in Patti Smith\u2019s band \u2013 did exactly that with the 1972 double album compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968, which influenced garage bands and punk rock through songs by American bands the Seeds, Electric Prunes, 13th Floor Elevators, Blues Magoos and others.<\/p>\n
The collection also birthed an industry of reissuing obscure rock songs, among them the 2001 Nuggets II four-CD collection \u2013 not involving Kaye \u2013 that looked to \u201cthe British Empire and Beyond 1964-1969\u201d. It included The La De Da\u2019s\u2019 How is the Air Up There? Blue Stars\u2019 Social End Product and Chants R&B\u2019s I\u2019m Your Witchdoctor, all underground Kiwi classics.<\/p>\n
Now 79, Kaye has released his debut solo album, Goin\u2019 Local, a quiet, thoughtful, honest and reflective recording with hints of country. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very personal,\u201d he says, \u201cand I feel it expresses who I am today \u2012 whoever I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s a long way from CBGBs. <\/p>\n
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Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Review by Graham Reid Music writer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7 20 Jul, 2026 06:00 PM3 mins to read Graham Reid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[695,95,22773,156,57193,1364,296,424,4462,157,111,139,69,1118,24689,91143,36008,225777],"class_list":["post-536403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-album","tag-and","tag-comeback","tag-entertainment","tag-gin","tag-her","tag-into","tag-life","tag-lot","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-packs","tag-raw","tag-vulnerable","tag-wigmore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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