Category: The Clean

While consistency was always a calling card for legendary New Zealand band The Clean, their final record Mister Pop deserves a spot in the pantheon of all-time excellent swan song records. While never feeling a departure from the band’s signature guitar pop sound, the record plays out like a swirling homage to the titan influences of the past: from the pure jangly nod to Rubber Soul and Ray Davies playbook to Velvets guitar drones and a pure krautrock experiment. On the eve of a recently announced definitive book on the band and following the tragic passing of the late Hamish Kilgour, the now seventeen-year old record provides a deeply fascinating revisit.

Not much in life is guaranteed — but you can be pretty damn sure that if David Kilgour’s name appears on a record, you’re in for something great. Whether playing with The Clean, solo, The Great Unwashed, or with the Heavy 8s, the New Zealand singer-songwriter-guitarist has 40 years’ worth of killer music behind him…and hopefully more to come. While we wait for fresh Kilgour, though, let’s check out some recent reissues.

Like pretty much everything The Clean has released over the past 35 years, their 2001 LP Getaway is a fantastic listen, filled with sparkling guitar, effortlessly catchy tunes and a […]