Last Man Down: State House Kid

Herald rating: ***

In the mid 80s Devonport singer-songwriter Ross Mullins with his band Last Man Down turned his attention to aspects of Kiwiana with a (mostly) sympathetic eye and couched his observations in a kind of Steely Dan jazzy pop-rock with help from the Newton Hoons horns, drummer Steve Garden, bassist Bob Shepheard, guitarists Mike Farrell and Graeme Webb, and others. His three 80s albums State House Kid, This Sporting Life and Parting Shots were high-water marks for literate lyrics.

Mullins celebrated netball girls and families bonding around the radio and rugby (Night of the Test), wrote of the killings of Japanese prisoners at Featherston in World War II, and took as his subjects Mr Asia (Last Fair Deal), the Erebus accident, migration to Australia, and good keen rural icons (Pinehead).

These 19 tracks come from the first two albums and although Mullins' vocals sometimes lack character and punch, these songs are sharp vignettes and observations which have aged well and remind you how grim - and synth-framed - the 80s were.

* I had a hand in the original album-cover designs.

Label: Ode