Adam Hattaway and the Haunters: High Horse (digital outlets)

No one could accuse Ōtautahi Christchurch's Adam Hattaway of coasting. Since his 2018 debut album All Dat Love with the Haunters, they've released five albums of Hattaway originals and co-writes, 2021's Rooster a double.

They've ranged from swaggering Stones-like rock'n'roll and dancefloor disco-rock to power-pop and alt.country. The compilation Anthology 2018-2023 offers a snapshot catch-up if you've missed these accomplished genre-jumpers.

High Horse, produced by Marlon Williams, finds Hattaway and co-writer Elmore Jones in a more despondent, reflective mood (notably Conical Hill's refrain “crying all the way”) on an album Hattaway unjustifiably describes as “frustratingly quiet”.

The menacing opener Good Times includes memorable similes – “a face like a cheap motel . . . a heart shaped like a homicide” -- and comes off akin to depressive Lennon in the White Album period.

Hattaway's love for 1960s pop comes through on the lightlydelic Beatlesque anthem My Screaming Machine; Room to Breathe with soulful falsetto boasts a refined, spare melody and open-heart sentiments in the manner of classic alt.country ballads; on the invitingly tropical standout If You Got Nowhere Else To Go, Hattaway slips between singing and a conversational delivery like recent Mike (Waterboys) Scott.

The beautifully dispirited mood of Mercy for the Weak with lachrymose pedal steel offers “you're a liar and a cheat, you have no mercy for the weak . . . you're just a heart attack on wings”.

High Horse doesn't consistently deliver (the weaker Paranoid Kid) but the best here is as good as disappointment-pop gets.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here.