McKenzie, Bret - Songs Without Jokes (Blue Coloured Vinyl) (Vinyl LP)

Bret McKenzie - Songs Without Jokes (Blue Coloured Vinyl)

Written mostly during the quieter moments of 2019, with his life split between work in Los Angeles and his family in Wellington, the songs of Songs focus on themes of escape, the perpetual search for peace, and navigating a life being pulled in multiple directions at once. There are also simple meditations on driving through a city, and the weather. McKenzie was inspired by the path icons like Newman and Nilsson had paved, where a silly or playful number could be sandwiched directly between a song about heartbreak or an earnest redemption and a scathing satire or character commentary. He threw a bit of everything into the mix, recording ideas on his phone at home in New Zealand after the kids had gone to sleep. Back in LA, he fine-tuned the songs with his longtime producer and collaborator, Mickey Petralia, and longtime film collaborator Chris Caswell created charts for that same ensemble of session players with whom they’d recorded so many pieces for film. The majority of songs were then recorded at United Studio in Los Angeles in just a few takes.

Tracklisting

1. This World
2. If You Wanna Go
3. Dave’s Place
4. Here For You
5. That’s L.A
6. Up In Smoke
7. Carry On
8. A Little Tune
9. America Goodbye
10. Tomorrow Today
11. Crazy Times