- by Chris Reynolds
- Thursday, January 18, 2007
Depending upon how you like your pop you may or may not like Goldenhorse, New Zealand’s most famous export since Peter Jackson. They enjoy a prime reputation in their home land with huge exposure on the Radio and in the charts and now release their self titled debut. It is a mixture of two albums they have already released in the southern hemisphere ‘Riverhead’ and ‘Out Of The Moon’ and thus is a compilation of their best work rehashed into one album. It is quite impossible to spot the difference however and the music isn’t varied enough to make that fact obvious. If you like the edgier, more dangerous side of pop then Goldenhorse may not quite float your boat as they are firmly entrenched in the safe world of mainstream pop. Furthermore they couldn’t be happier being there, make no bones about it Goldenhorse are out to produce simple pop music, not challenge the frontiers of the genre.
‘Riverhead’ is a prime example of the easy going nature of the album, with gentle rhythmic drums underpinning a mix of female and male vocals. Vocally they are confident but somewhat clichéd. “Nothing flows like the blood of lovers, running over rocks underground” doesn’t represent anything necessarily new but is a dream for pop fans and lovers alike. The album plays at an easy pace never really breaking the mould but this is important in order to emphasise the talent of the band. Vocalist Kirsten Morell has a powerful range to her voice no more evident than in opening track ‘Run, Run, Run’ where she reaches ear splitting highs and enriches the simple verses. Her voice simply fits the band absolutely perfectly.
‘Golden Dawn’ gives Goldenhorse a striking resemblance to KT Tunstall’s work and kicks on happily with more predictable lyrics. ‘Used To think’ is the closest the band get to really challenging the formula they’re using with an increase in pace and a much needed sense of urgency which is lacking generally.
Goldenhorse will either make you nauseated or feel like melting. It all depends on what sort of pop you choose to indulge yourself with and how pressing you wish the music to be. Goldenhorse will sell plenty of records but they’re more in the vain of the Coors than the most impressive female fronted indie-pop bands like Metric. The star of the band is vocalist Morell whose voice shoots to the fore for its sensitivity and range but the only way to summarise Goldenhorse is that they fulfil all the pop boundaries without ever really challenging them.
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