Some sort of default International Achievement Award. The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers: And the winner of this year’s award will likely be these guys.

But it’s doing nothing to further Neilson’s cause artistically. Tami Neilson – Chickaboom: This is a nice enough piece of product. We ate up their platforms and spat out their chances. No one wants to offend anyone anymore, everyone wants to be friends. But really this should be in there instead of Anna Coddington, not as well as Anna Coddington. Reb Fountain – Reb Fountain: Actually, it would make sense if this one won. And shits out progressively weaker records. I’ve heard she bites back very hard if you don’t keep rolling out the easy-going compliments. (Aw shucks – ed.) The panel probably put Nadia on the list because they’re scared she might not let them go to her concerts anymore. Nadia Reid – Out of My Province: This was easily her worst album so far, a weak rinse-and-repeat effort. They are accomplished musicians that are making it very clear that they intend to make the same album over and over again (just look at the titles). L.A.B – L.A.B IV: These guys are the very worst – for one reason in particular. So the panel would have taken that into account when judging her album because these clueless pack of free-lunch hacks at the trough love the chance to reward someone for being nice and kind and prefer it when they don’t have to talk about the music. But she is community minded and spoke up recently about the industry troubles. And there is nothing to discern her music. Here’s what he thought of the finalists list.Īnna Coddington – Beams: Anna works hard and has a nice voice. He’s also keen to see his name removed from the prize. Taite agreed broadly with me, he’d be happy to have Kingi take another gong. I spoke to Dylan Taite – we Kiwi music scribes have a way of reaching each other and like to think our finger remains on the pulse even when the pulse no longer remains. But Kingi’s bold aim to make 10 albums in as many years, each in a distinct genre, is reason enough to back that horse in this race. Almost everything else on the list of finalists could be a fast-food order or a comfy shoe in a parallel universe.

Artistic success is about surging forward on the adrenalin of creating for the sake of filling the world with something good. That can be a component, but it’s a by-product. Artistic success is not commercial – though it can be. Kingi is a great example of striving for artistic success. The only possible outcome that could keep the dream of this award even meaning something would be for Troy Kingi to win it back to back on top of last year’s victory. He died again today when news was beamed through to him about the 2021 finalists. It is named after Dylan Taite, the great Kiwi rock scribe. The Taite Music Prize recognises artistic success for one New Zealand album released in the past year.

Abomination spat