Sailor’s Second Record

Rip It Up, Issue 18, 1 December 1978, Page 12

Sailor’s Second Record

Bruce Belsham

Hello Sailor Pacifica Amour Key If New Zealand records are labelled rarities, how much rarer are follow up albums in this country. For a variety of reasons rock acts tend to make debuts here then either depart to Australia or stay to watch their recording careers wither under the stultifying glare of public indifference

Second records are so infrequent that it is very, very difficult to know what a follow up should do for a N Z. band. In reviewing Hello Sailor's Pacifica Amour. I am therefore forced to use expectations formed by experience of overseas product which may be neither fair nor appropriate. Nevertheless follow up albums can do several things Ideally a second bite of the recording cherry consolidates potential. Pundits look to follow ups to confirm hopes and doubts, to define impressions. At best one expects to hear irrelevancies pruned, talents sharpened. Often a follow-up involves a two way movement: growth and definition on the one hand and restriction or specialisation on the other.

Hello Sailor have released Pacifica Amour to succeed their first L.P. which stands as New Zealand's most successful ever rock record. Hello Sailor is an album remarkable for a diversity of influences. Ranging from the reggae of "All Around This Town" to the smooch and swoon of "Lying in the Sand", it is a generous album, a good rock album and an all-rounder's outing at the same time. Almost inevitably Hello Sailor have activated one half of the classical follow-up process in reducing the eclecticism of the first record.

Pacifica Amour is much more clearly delimited. The sound and style is that which emerged during the last six months of concerts Sailor played here before moving out: the heavy pulse of East Coast U S. rock and roll dominates.

However, in emphasising this stylistic aspect, the band have missed out on the second part of the process With the elimination of Latin. Pop. Melodic influences the immediacy of the first edition has all but gone Of the new material only I'm a Texan" and "Doctor Jazz" straight away distinguish themselves as did "Gutter Black". "Blue Lady". "All Around this Town”. "Latin Lover". Potentially effective songs like "Disco s Dead" and “Boys from Brazil" never emerge from a sameness which masquerades as stylistic unity. Here is where I may be being unfair. I have the nagging suspicion that Pacifica Amour has been sold short, that the move to specialise could easily have worked. In a country where audiences expect all bands to be all things, forging a single unified sound is a brave move. In this case the failure is less that of the band than that of production. The proof is that songs like “Disco is Dead”, "Blackpool” and "Boys from Brazil" are great fun on stage yet simply do not capture the same zest on vinyl. Brazier's voice has less cut and most importantly the interplay of the twin guitars has none of the clarity displayed on Hello Sailor. Pacifica Amour was probably intended to be a tougher, more hard headed, more professional album than Hello Sailor. Those are good intentions and Pacifica Amour deserves support because it is by no means a bad record. Yet it is a pity that the cost of self determination had to be so high.