There are certain things that always come up to mind when you mention New Zealand and music - the first is Kiwi Rock, as a specific genre, the second is the Flying Nun label, which brought us more or less everything good connected to Kiwi Rock and the third is The Chills, The Clean and The Bats triumvirate, signifying the best of the previous two.
Oh, one more direct connection. The Clean bass player Robert Scott is actually the lead guitarist, singer and main composer of The Bats. At one time he was also a part of the more psychedelia inclined The Magic Heads. Busy man.
The Bats though are his main baby. While The Chills have that wide-ranging, organ- driven sound with a lot of dark corners, and The Clean have that angular sound that combines stripped-down Beach Boys harmonies with Captain Beefheart playing pop, The Bats stick more closely to pop. Great, jangly, melancholy pop.
And “The Deep Set”, their ninth album in more than three decades delivers it again: great jangly, melancholy pop. One thing that is fascinating about The Bats is how the sense of great melody has not left them all these years and that no matter how distinctive their sound is, they never repeat themselves and don’t get boring, even though you are certain what you are going to get every single time their new album is out.
Obviously, most of it has to do with Scott’s impeccable sense of melody, great voice, and guitar playing. At moments you begin to wonder why did he pick up a bass anyway? But then, getting involve in all those other great projects (The Magic Heads are also one of those relatively undiscovered Flying Nun treasures).
The moment the opener “Rooftops” hits your ears you can make no mistake to what and by who you are listening to - unabashed pop-rock by The Bats. And no matter how much you try to nitpick and find faults, they simply don’t let you. “Looking For Sunshine”, “Rock and Pillars”, on to the tongue-in-cheek closer “Not So Good” (actually very good), The Bats deliver great melodies effortlessly played and sung, and that is it. If you need more, I guess, you’ll have to look somewhere else.
But then, you have to ask yourself - what is wrong with great jangly pop?
