The Verlaines Essentials

Apple Music

With typical Kiwi wryness, The Verlaines named their 2003 compilation album You're Just Too Obscure For Me. True, the band was never a hit machine. After all, their leader, Graeme Downes was a musical academic who researched Mahler and Shostakovich. But that experience brought an angular and baroque edge that lifted his songs beyond regular indie rock. 1987's Bird Dog is the perfect showcase for his mix of classical music thinking and Flying Nun-style guitar-pop, while 1989's Some Disenchanted Evening and 1991's Ready to Fly found him toughening up and going in a rockier direction.

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