The VerlainesThe NZ music scene in Dunedin in the 80's was vibrant place.  The DIY ethos of punk fuelled a generation of musicians to do their own thing.  There was no world wide web to inter-connect.  Local radio apart form the local universitiy student station refused to touch the homegrown product.  Nothing fitted the middle of the road, 3 minute product being placed on the airwaves at the time.  The Verlaines certainly didn't fit that bill.  They took the name not from Tom Verlaine but French poet, Paul Verlaine (go on, do a google)

The band was driven by Graeme Downes whose musical passions lay more in the direction Gustav Mahler rather than Anarchy in the UK and the Velvet Underground that inspired a lot of their contemporaries.  The music was complex, full of unusual chord changes.  But the Verlaines thankfully never fell into the overbloated, flatulent excesses of Classical Art Rock proponents like Emerson Lake & Palmer. A live concert by the Verlaines was a roller coaster ride of dynamics.  Songs went from blistering wall of sound to a pin drop.

Hallelujah All The Way Home was released in 1985 and is their debut album.  Downes was studying music at the time and submitted the album as part of his course assessment.  Legend has it he got a A.

The opening line of track, "Well hello there...  Sordid inmates..." of "It was Raining" sets to the tone to introduce the album. The track meanders through key changes and changes in dynamics effortlessly. 

The songs on the album are tight and well arranged.  Not only that, the Verlaines were a band who could produce it all live.

Last FM Verlaines

Track Listing:

• "It Was Raining"
• "All Laid On"
• "The Lady and the Lizard"
• "Don't Send me Away"
• "Lying in State"
• "Phil Too?"
• "For the Love of Ash Grey"
• "The Ballad of Harry Noryb"