Hunters & Collectors, Human Frailty (1986)

I actually forgot I had this album – bought no doubt because I played (ad nauseum) a version of Throw Your Arms Around Me in a covers band in the mid/late 1990s. It was the thing to do. I was never the biggest fan of Hunters & Collectors beyond a few songs. And then I read Mark Seymour’s book. Thoroughly enjoyable. He seemed a bit of a prick and difficult – and more than happy to acknowledge it. That plus the way he put across the hard-slog of being in a band, the completely unglamourous/unrewarding toil; that made me go back to the albums and hear new favourites, find new songs to dig. Still never one of my absolute favourite bands, it’s nice – from time to time – to stumble on to some of their good stuff. There’s plenty on this album. And more than anything a reminder of the great legacy of Australian music across the late 1970s and into the early 1990s. What happened? I think Australian radio has fucked its country’s music more than NZ radio has or ever will.

Sample Track: This Morning

The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown