Fans of independent NZ music will need little introduction to Jolyon Mulholland. The former lead singer of Motocade and current member of The Mots - both of which also feature the considerable talents of his brothers Eden and Will - will release his new album Eugene Told Me You Were Dead on Monday. Neil Finn once described Jol as "one of the most talented guys I know - he's got talent exuding from every pore" and listening through "Eugene" it is easy to see where the Kiwi music great is coming from. Recorded in a "small North Shore bedroom" (perhaps if it was big he might have gone too Phil Spector on it!) and mixed at Finn's Roundhouse Studios before being mastered in the land of Oz, the album is a pop sensation in the nicest way.
Channelling the good pop; Beatles, Beck, Brian Wilson, mixing homegrown close influence; Liam Finn, Phoenix Foundation but standing alone in itself Eugene might just add the name Mulholland to the upper pantheon of Kiwi music's great family names. John Lennon is a little too present in Everything's Gonna Be Alright and tunes like Realizing We Are Nothing will be better for a Pikachunes-style remix but the gems on the album are diamonds: I Used To Be A Cowboy, It's Only An Illusion, Yesterday's Over among them. If anything, this album tells us at Jol Mulholland is well and truly alive.
Mulholland Eugene Told Me You Were Dead - on sale June 27
