Old Reliable. Is there a better nickname for David Kilgour? Maybe there's one only his close friends know, but for my money, as a listener, few titles could be more fitting. For 2\xBD decades now, Kilgour has been to New Zealand indie pop the batter who hits .300 every season with 100 RBI, the nightwatchman that never misses a shift, the surgeon who never loses a patient. These things don't make front-page news or win many awards, but they're admirable feats all the same, and ultimately, that kind of consistency is a huge accomplishment. Kilgour will never make the best album ever, or even the best album of the year, but when he heads into a studio with friends-- be they his long-running and hugely influential band The Clean, or just a one-time assemblage for a solo record-- the results are always impressively satisfying.
There's something very comfortable about Frozen Orange, Kilgour's sixth album under his given name-- its sound is welcoming, almost casual, and its contains a fine clutch of compositions. But while Kilgour's work boasts a workmanlike consistency, these songs are still clearly the result of careful craftsmanship. There's a tangible ebb and flow to his record, as Kilgour and a crew including Jason Loewenstein, Lambchop's Mark Nevers, Clockhammer's Matt Swanson, Alan Haig of The Verlaines and The Chills, and Tony Crow sculpt the dynamics of these songs to create an overarching contour for the album.
Songs like "Everybody's on a Ride" feel loose and relaxed, but the way the twangy guitar hook is punched up to the front of the mix in response to Kilgour's wispy intonation of the title reveals good planning. "Living in Space" is a sprightly, complex rocker, but its drive never spills over into aggression, and the sound is kept clean. In fact, distortion is hard to come by anywhere on Frozen Orange, and the raga-inspired instrumentals that dominated much of Kilgour's last album, A Feather in the Engine, are nowhere to be found. This serves the songs well, and gives the album a tone rather akin to the underwater world depicted on its cover, tremolo being the main effect present on the guitars.
Also contributing to the album's strength as a complete piece is the deft sequencing. "Rolling" is a great closer, with its easy-flowing guitar and piano motifs and Sam Baker's roomy drums bringing things down like the last call for beer at a summer deck party. Its waltz beat also draws the album full circle to opener "The Waltz", which, true to its title, is a loping, three-to-the-bar tune spilling with spacey guitars and drifting vocals. In between, there's nothing to complain about, as basically everything hits homelike it should, from the Caribbean beat of "Gold in Sound" to the spacey piano pop of "G Major 7".
Hence, Old Reliable. I feel a little odd implying that Kilgour is old, as he hasn't reached the point of complacency or irrelevance that the word implies, but he's been with us for quite some time, and his mark looms so large on the New Zealand music scene that it's difficult not to think of him as an elder statesman. That said, he's fully earned the tag on Frozen Orange, and anyone looking for unpretentious, laidback and solid full-length is hereby invited to check out what's made Kilgour one our most consistent performers for 25 years.
