Fire Records this October will release a remastered, remixed and expanded 2LP vinyl reissue of New Zealand indie-pop legends The Chills long-out-of-print 1987 debut Brave Words.
From eerie folk lullabies to bouncy b-sides: Ten of the Chills’ best songs Kiran Dass
A singular band, the Chills are difficult to stylistically define because their diverse sound traverses lush psychedelia, whimsy and gloom, punk rock and bright jangly pop. Known for their revolving door policy on band members, perhaps rivalled only by the Fall (there have been at least 33 members of the Chills over their 41-year career), the one constant is Martin Phillipps. And they’re back with Scatterbrain, their first album since 2018.
10. Draft Morning (1989)
Phillipps goes to an early source of inspiration with this plaintive cover of the Vietnam protest song by the Byrds. Charting the inner world of a freshly recruited soldier on the morning he is to be drafted into the Vietnam war and the existential dilemma he faces, the song begins with the idealistic “sun warm on my face” and ends on the sombre line “today was the day for action. Leave my bed to kill instea