Starting afresh

New releases from Mermaidens and Grayson Gilmour impress.

- GRAHAM REID

MERMAIDENS 

by Mermaidens 

Then Mermaiden singers Gussie Larkin (guitar) and Lily West (bass) talked to me independently about this fourth album, they spoke with one voice: they wanted an album that was bold, clear and distinct from much of their previous work.

That approach had worked well enough: their 2017 album Perfect Body was a Taite Prize nominee and they were up for Best Alternative Artist at the 2020 Aotearoa Music Awards following their Look Me in the Eye album.

Me Now independent after those two albums for Flying Nun, their new songs have sharper definition, mostly worked up from demos in Larkin and West's home studios, recorded with Phoenix Foundation's Sam Flynn Scott co-producing.