Planam / Italy / RE 2019
Some Songs stands as a cult artifact of New Zealand outsider folk—unvarnished, intimate, and full of sly humor—where rough-edged experimentation collides with open-hearted songwriting in ways both playful and profoundly personal.
First self-released in the mid-1990s, Donald McPherson’s Some Songs has long been considered a cornerstone of Aotearoa’s outsider tradition. This Planam reissue gathers the original album alongside bonus material from the scarce Decap (1995) and The Trees (1996) lathe-cut 7"s, forming the most complete picture yet of McPherson’s idiosyncratic vision.
His music balances unfiltered honesty with curious invention: stark, sensitive pop fragments rub up against lo-fi tape sketches and offhand experiments. The songs embrace vulnerability without hesitation, their awkward edges becoming part of their charm. Far from hiding behind polish, McPherson lets the tape hiss and imperfections enhance the sense of closeness, as if the listener is eavesdropping on songs in the moment of their creation.
These recordings are fragile yet fearless, awkward yet embracing, naive yet deeply affecting. McPherson sidesteps conventional craft to pursue direct expression, channeling whatever he feels—raw, unguarded, and unrepeatable. The result is music that feels deeply personal but resonates well beyond the individual.
With its rare extras and limited red vinyl pressing, Some Songs serves as both an essential document of New Zealand’s experimental underground and a lasting testament to McPherson’s singular voice.