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MATTHEW PICKERING: The Burnside Church

This the debut album of Wellington musician Matthew Pickering follows his 2006 ‘Planetarium EP’. Here he draws on his influences of folk-based pop, and the more individual figures in current popular music including Joanna Newsom, Sufjan Stevens and Thom Yorke, though little sounds particularly like them. As the title suggests this is a personal album, with plenty of references to Pickering’s relationships, his battle with depression and everyday events – the mundane and the not so. The lyrics, however, are more like poetry set to music and so often overly verbose. Pickering is a talented pianist, which is shown on Eggshell Breaking a folk-jazz duet with vocalist Lillian Fougere, and the instrumental Interlude, which injects some drama into the music, which is acoustic and often lovely. However, moments like these are few – and at 12 tracks, and just over an hour long, this would have benefitted from being kept more concise.

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