Spanning a critical gap

Critic, writer, broadcaster and musician Nick Bollinger's latest book, 100 Essential New Zealand Albums, is likely to prompt some heated debate. Well, that's the hope, he tells Shane Gilchrist.

It's fair to say Nick Bollinger's new book, 100 Essential New Zealand Albums, has been a while in the making, a bit like some of those mid-'80s Flying Nun releases around which rumours would swirl long before the arrival of any new tracks.

Indeed, were it entirely up to Bollinger (50), the long-time music critic, writer, musician and broadcaster would probably still be finalising his selection, painstakingly comparing Max Merritt & The Meteors' 1976 album, Out Of The Blue, with the band's earlier effort, A Little Easier, before making the contentious call that, yes, the latter is the better despite its lack of a hit single.

However, deadline requirements eventually prompted Bollinger to sign off on his top 100.

Several albums (he doesn't disclose which ones) were sacrificed through "agonising" decisions; now his list of all lists, published by Awa Press, is available for public inspection, rumination, debate.

"I certainly expect to get some flak," Bollinger says via phone from his Auckland home.

"Everyone who picks it up will be incensed by something that is in there, or something that isn't.

"And that's fine.

"That's the nature of pop music.

"People always feel passionately about it."

In order to get stuck into the project, Bollinger took a couple of breaks from his long-running National Radio music show, The Sampler; likewise, his regular articles in The Listener were suspended at times over the past couple of years as he rummaged around for albums he'd heard of but not listened to, "to really make sure I had a good idea of what's out there".

Bollinger's effort is not the first to cover New Zealand music.

John Dix's Stranded in Paradise, published in 1988 but re-released and updated in 2005, and Gareth Schute's NZ Rock: 1987-2007 are two books that spring to mind, as does Grant Smithies' Soundtrack: 118 Great New Zealand Albums.

Yet Bollinger spied a space in the shelves, something that might fit between the excellent histories of the former two and the passionate, highly subjective approach of Smithies' release, among others.

"I thought there was a critical gap," Bollinger explains.

"There have been some excellent histories ...

"I thought there were a lot of books that recorded the facts but not many that stood back and took a critical look: what makes good or bad music, what's special, the stuff we should be celebrating."

Bollinger is careful to remain within the (albeit loose) parameters of "pop" music, i.e. a result of a hybrid of musical styles rather than any single genre.

Thus, there is no electronica, country or jazz, though these strains infuse various selections.

"I was considering things like Douglas Lilburn's electronic recordings, things that are off the popular radar, but I thought I had to rein this in somehow.

I thought I'd stay away from those specialised areas.

There are enough styles that can be classed as pop to keep it broad enough for everyone."

In an age of iTunes playlists and downloadable singles, Bollinger notes his book could form part of a wider eulogy for the long-player format, that concept by which artists select and programme songs in the hope they might be enjoyed in a specific sequence.

"The album is going the way of the symphony.

People won't stop writing them, but it becomes more of a boutique thing where a serious select audience sits down to consume them."

A great album requires more than just a single or two, Bollinger contends.

It must hold the listener, offer surprises and ensure repeated visits.

And it need not have been made on a massive budget: certainly, The Gordons' self-titled 1981 debut, recorded in one thunderous 22-hour session, wasn't; nor was Chris Knox's inventive 1990 effort Seizure.

Many of Bollinger's selections make the grade by virtue of outstanding performances.

Take 1964 release Introducing Dinah Lee.

"It just jumps out of the speakers," he enthuses.

"The band on that is fantastic.

"It's Max Merritt and The Meteors, who had been playing non-stop at the time.

"It's like that first Beatles album, Please Please Me.

"It has that same quality - of a band stuck in the studio for 12 hours.