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JAMIE STRANGE: Thanks For Faking It Sometimes

Hamilton’s Jamie Strange reckons that “fake is the new real” – in which case he has a very real chance of making it as a pop star with global ambitions. The music on this album has no connection to New Zealand whatsoever, it offers nothing to separate it from the music that you hear in places when you are not expecting to hear good music (younger siblings’ bedrooms, movie trailers, ZM stations) and it has Vocoder-treated vocals, processed guitars and whey melodies, soggy, wet and uninspiring. My ears felt insulted listening to this because clearly a lot of work has gone in to the album. But when he goes Jackson Pollock on the musical canvas, as is the case with Who Am I?, featuring a turgid rap by Rhymin’ B, Eastern strings, an Aerosmith power-ballad, traces of emo bands, Incubus and Matchbox 20 all in one song – topped off with a Pink Floyd-esque guitar solo – you have to wonder if Jamie Strange is a) capable of being stopped and b) for real? One album in to his career and he’s already released his own ‘Chinese Democracy’. This is one baffling-as-all-bonkers pop album.

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