Holy Smoke

The new subject of overhype is Gin - formerly (and perhaps still occasionally) Gin Wigmore (as in wear a wig-to-be-more like Amy Winehouse).

People are going to scream and holler and say she doesn't sound like Amy Winehouse. But the record company is certainly packaging her up to appeal to the same people who bought albums by Winehouse and also Duffy - formerly (and perhaps still occasionally) Aimee Duffy.

(Duffy denies dropping the Amy-sounding part of her name to avoid Winehouse comparisons herself: cue Tui billboard.)

Gin's voice is a subject of discussion. Even people who claim to love her - are proud of her success - have said they dislike the voice. Gin herself has said she dislikes her voice; finds it strange. The spin is for it to be reported repeatedly as "a unique voice".

Let's call a spade a spade: she has a strange voice. She writes adequate (at best) songs. She moved to Australia and created her career there and now we want to claim her since she's Kiwi-born.

Here we go again.

And here we go again at Blog on the Tracks - people will probably write in saying I hate all New Zealand music; asking why I bother. I bother because I get asked to write my opinion relating to albums, gigs, musicians.

And here - as published in last week's Dominion Post - is my opinion of Gin's debut full-lengther, Holy Smoke:

Gin
Holy Smoke
Universal

Reviewed by Simon Sweetman

This album has been created as a piece of product: there is a song that will appeal to buyers of Amy Winehouse, a song that will appeal to buyers of Duffy (probably two or three songs) and there are songs that sound like Anastacia doing soul-pop and Macy Gray doing whatever it is that she does. Gin (formerly Gin Wigmore) is a Kiwi, but she is based in Australia and has had her success there - so it's odd that we now push her as 2010's Ladyhawke; which she will inevitably be (and when she wins half a dozen Kiwi music awards won't that just silence the critics! Um, yeah, sure, okay...?) Holy Smoke even manages to contain a song every bit as infuriating and skin-crawlingly annoying as her Under My Skin soul-selling jingle for Air New Zealand. A growing cult of fans will continue to point out that she doesn't really sound like Amy Winehouse or Duffy, protesting just a bit too much; that she won an international songwriting competition at age 17 (did every songwriter in the world enter that?); and that she wrote a song at a tender age about her father dying. This album is still a dud, slickly and cynically packaged to appeal to people with no taste.
1 Star

But what do you think? Is the review harsh? Or is it on the money? Did you spend your money buying the album - do you love it? Or could you care less?

Is Gin the Ladyhawke of 2010 - or should I say will she be? And is that a good or a bad thing?

What are your thoughts on Ms Gin Wigmore-No-More?

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