The Nukes -III (Nukes)

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I like The Nukes, I really do. I like the fact that they are writing original songs on the ukulele and not just pumping out ironic covers (Wellington Ukulele Orchestra I am looking at you) challenging both their songwriting chops and arrangement skills by pushing their sound forward.

They are a great live act that formed out of the 2008 Titirangi Festival of Music and have released two previous albums hence the title of this one.  Live they often  have a vaudevillian feel to them at times with banjolele and gruff sounding vocalist David “Snapper” Thiele adding rough to Dave “Fingers of Fire” Parker and Benjamin “Country Boy” Colliers’ smooth slide and solo flourishes.

Therefore it would be great for me to tell you that this album is gonna make them a household name in NZ, but I don’t think this is the one. It has some fantastic songs and interesting arrangements that move them away from the straight 2 ukuleles, banjolele sound but then it also contains songs that are the wrong side of twee for me and it’s hard to get a handle on the multiple styles with country, ska, and ragtime pulling it in many directions.

With a bit of trimming it would have made a top notch EP but with its multifaceted approach, it feels a bit all over the place as an album.   I ended up wondering who this album is intended for? Ukulele groups, schoolchildren, music teachers? Festival organisers? Middle aged Radio NZ listeners?

It’s gotta be a tough line to tread given the ukulele’s history as a novelty item, exotic instrument, tourist souvenir and more recently primary school recorder replacement and as a parent who has recently been through the Primary school experience, I thank Bill Sevesi on a daily basis for the latter.

The album starts strongly with Call on Me which is a catchy song that stomps along with nice horn flourishes and a darkly comedic lyric. Boot Straps finds the softer-voiced David Parker taking lead on a tune that really shines with its fiddle lines complementing the melody. However Mankind with it’s sprightly but kind of annoying refrain ” Mankind /Kind Man” tires after a couple of minutes and from there we are into a tunnel that contains a song with a punned title Palomine (Get it?) This only winds back the musical clock with its piano parlour arrangement.

On My Side is a wobbly ska song that still manages some charm with an interesting solo before Congratulations which trucks along in a Lady Madonna kind of way swinging through it’s slight lyric with aplomb.  Upon A River caresses the listener with a  pedal steel love ballad and is one of the strongest songs on the album.

Unfortunately it is followed up with one of the weaker songs, Indigenous which has a message but not a memorable melody and an uneasy Bo Diddley reggae beat. Nice horns though. From there we really jump the shark with Salad Dragon which belongs on an album of kids songs or on an old episode of children’s TV hosted by Chic Littlewood and  featuring Willie Mcnab starting as it does with a spoken introduction and nonsense lyric.

Things are bought to a close with the rather lovely Pohutukawa Blooms with it’s lilting vocal and summery country tune but I found the weaker songs (Palomine, Indigenous, Salad Dragon) had lost me along the way and so I had to go back and listen to this song by itself to appreciate it’s craft.

There is no doubt The Nukes have a created a collection of songs that have charm, wit and some memorable melodies with a unikely NZ flavour but as an album III lacks cohesion and focus and left me feeling unsure of who its intended audience is.

Brent Giblin

Click here to listen to Call On Me from III:

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