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R.K. McKAY: Between The River And The Railroad Tracks

Russell McKay is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has previously played with Special Features and Slim Jim & His Amazing Funky Biscuits. Opening track Little Bit Of Salt features nice, noisy guitars over a quirky wee alt-pop song. Unfortunately the beyond-primitive drum machine – sounding like the waltz-demo-setting on a very cheap keyboard – ruins the magic of the tune. From there we have better drum machine sounds on How Bad Can A Good Girl Get? but the song is not as strong; sounding like generic 1980s Kiwi bar rock – and not in the occasional good way. The muddy recording – distinctly lo-fi (and not in the occasional good way) – means that listeners will get bored with McKay’s voice very quickly. But I do applaud his closing track, That Van Morrison Song. It’s a good title because it doesn’t sound anything like a song by Van Morrison. Instead, it sounds like what a solo album from the feelers’ James Reid might be like.

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