Rave review for "essential" new album

First major review is in for the new record and it's a good one.

This from Elsewhere's always incisive Graham Reid - full review here

"Fleming's lyrics of Liquor Store should appear in any new collection of contemporary New Zealand poetry... Because within 3.32 he tells us more about the pathetic and stupid “kids from around here” doing a dumb robbery with a “Made in China” plastic gun than any uni-poetry post-grad could ever do.

A not-even-news story delivered acoustically from within a character: “Closing time they break in the door . . . third time, six months . . . this ain't no ATM, you want money then try working on the weekend . . . I do what they say, name-tag on my shirt, they start calling me Sanjay, till's open . . . I live up on the second floor, my mother, my brother, my wife and three kids . . . TV came out to the store . .”

The final song Our Little Gang For Sophia is another miniature: this about a friend who committed suicide. In this instance it is a famous friend (“You know her name”) but he underplays the connection to give it universal meaning: “Our little gang . . . will never be the same . . .”)

And it just, tellingly, falters to a halt because the silence beyond is incomprehensibly sad.

Very rarely is the personal so poetic, the poetic so personal  . . . and the personal so political.

These are postcards from a place you don't want to be.

But they are from where you and I live.

And Fleming/Working Poor bring them home . . . uncomfortably.

Essential."

The record is available now on Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes and all streaming services...

Top five for Forget the Past

Elsewhere has chosen Forget the Past as one of the five faves, and in great company too.

"What a remarkable year it has been so far in New Zealand music: bristling pop-rock from Clap Clap Riot, Grayson Gilmour's multi-layered album, singer-songwriter Greg Fleming stretching himself in various directions  . . .

In fact, and this is a first at Elsewhere, this week all the albums under our Favourite Five Recent CDs come from New Zealand artists.

And now this excellent entry from Liam Finn, one of the sons of a senior statesman whose most recent album Dizzy Heights is among that favourites list."