''Marvellous Year'' is a 2009 album by

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

songwriter

Don McGlashan Donald McGlashan (born 18 July 1959) is a New Zealand composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist who Is best known for membership in the bands Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, and The Mutton Birds, before going solo. He has also composed for ci ...

and The Seven Sisters. The album was recorded at

Neil Finn Neil Mullane Finn (born 27 May 1958) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and musician who is known for being a member of Crowded House, Split Enz (which he co-fronted with brother Tim), and Fleetwood Mac. Finn rose to prominence in the late ...

Roundhead Studios Roundhead Studios is an Auckland-based sound recording studio owned by singer-songwriter Neil Finn. It was officially opened in June 2007, however by the time of its opening, several international artists had already used it whilst the studio was ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, and featured Finn on backing vocals on two tracks, "18th Day" and "C2006P1 (Make Yourself at Home)". The title is drawn from a line in the

Allen Curnow Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (17 June 1911 – 23 September 2001) was a New Zealand poet and journalist. Life Curnow was born in Timaru, New Zealand, the son of a fourth generation New Zealander, an Anglican clergyman, and he grew up in a relig ...

poem "The Skeleton of the Great Moa in the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch":

"Not I, some child, born in a marvellous year,
Will learn the trick of standing upright here."

Bathe in the River "Bathe in the River" is a single released by New Zealand supergroup Mt Preservation Society featuring New Zealand soul singer Hollie Smith. It appears on the soundtrack for the 2006 New Zealand film '' No. 2''. The single peaked at No. 2 on t ...

" had appeared originally on the soundtrack to the film '' No. 2'', where it had been sung by

Hollie Smith Hollie Smith (born 17 November 1982) is a New Zealand soul singer-songwriter based in Auckland, New Zealand. Her four solo albums ''Long Player, Humour and the Misfortune of Others, Water or Gold,'' and ''Coming In From The Dark'' have all reach ...

. The song won the

APRA Silver Scroll The APRA Music Awards are several annual and two-yearly award ceremonies run in New Zealand by Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members. APRA hold the annual Silver ...

in 2006. The closing track, "The Colossus of Roadies", is from a stage show McGlashan worked on with

Toa Fraser Toa Fraser (born 1975) is a New Zealand born playwright and film director, of Fijian heritage. His first feature film, '' No. 2'', starring Ruby Dee won the Audience Award (World Dramatic) at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. His second, ''Dean ...

, director of '' No. 2''.

Track listing

(All songs by Don McGlashan) # "The Switch" – 4:29 # "Bad Blood" – 5:42 # "Not Ready" – 4:14 # "You're the Song" – 4:21 # "Everything's Broken; Life's So Sweet" – 3:58 # "18th Day" – 6:16 # "Marvellous Year" – 4.42 # "Radio Programmer" – 3:33 # " C2006P1 (Make Yourself at Home)" – 3:05 # "Bathe in the River" – 5:20 # "Theme From 'The Colossus of Roadies'" – 2:42

Personnel

– vocals, guitars, piano,

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

euphonium The euphonium is a medium-sized, 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word ''euphōnos'', meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" ( ''eu'' means "well" ...

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

, glockenspiel, mandolin, DM100, bells, backing vocals * Dominic Blaazer – electric piano, Hammond organ,

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

, mandolin, backing vocals * Chris O'Connor – drums, percussion, hand drum, shaker, backing vocals * Maree Thom – bass, cello, accordion, backing vocals * John Segovia – electric guitars, slide guitar, pedal steel guitar,

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

, backing vocals

Additional personnel

* Sean Donnelly – bass ("Not Ready") *

– backing vocals ("18th Day", "C2006P1") * Kingsley Melhuich – trumpet ("C2006P1") * Haydn Godfrey – trombone ("C2006P1") * Strings on "Not Ready": Ashley Brown, Miranda Adams, Justine Cormack, Christine Bowie

References

External links

Marvellous Year press release
df {{Authority control Don McGlashan albums 2009 albums Albums recorded at Roundhead Studios