1995

by Anthony Horan

Anyone preparing to complain about the state of the music industry should spare a thought for Jan Hellriegel; relocating to Melbourne from her native New Zealand, she records one of the best albums of 1995, and then patiently awaits its Australian release. And waits. With the album put on the shelf after two singles failed to gain airplay, Jan returns to New Zealand, plans unknown; the album, belatedly but thankfully, now sees the light of day, more than a year after its intended release date.

With Daniel Denholm in the producer’s chair, Hellreigel throws everything she’s done to date out the window and gets wildly, exhilaratingly creative here. First single Manic is a compact ball of white-hot energy that more than lives up to its name, a stunning and utterly original tidal wave of sound with a pop song cleverly weaved in. It is, though, the tip of the aural iceberg. Only One Option and Touch Greenstone indulge Denholm’s fondness for string arrangements, both of them epic enough to soundtrack a small ocean. Jan’s lyrical tales of anger and introspection are often given a perfect sonic edge throughout the album thanks to Denholm’s experimentation.

And Jan’s no conventional songwriter, either. Her songs, of no definable genre but related to many, take unconventional paths in their travel from start to finish, no more so than on the title track, which is equal parts acoustic ballad, film soundtrack and Celtic pub singalong while sounding like none of the above; Moon’s On Fire marries a tale of masochism to one of the most unconventional rock songs you’ll ever hear: songs often travel off on tangents when you least expect it. It’s Not Me, the album’s closing track, might have been a sugar-coated ballad in anyone else’s hands, but here there’s nothing you can do to avoid being hit about the head with the sheer emotion of it.

So one of the best albums of 1995 becomes one of the best of ’96. At last available to the public, Tremble is a perfect antidote to the saccharine glop that currently coats the charts. Search it out.