The Chills’ Martin Phillipps died unexpectedly this week at age 61. That’s too young for anyone to go but it’s especially hard to take given the artistic renaissance Phillipps has had in the last 10 years. He spent much of the ’90s and ’00s mired in addiction and suffering from hepatitis c (the two were related), but he really pulled it together in the late 2010s with a stable new lineup of the band, releasing three excellent new Chills records. All three of those feature the classic Chills sound — masterful pop melodicism, psychedelic and spooky touches, and searching, empathetic lyricism — but for those who are only somewhat familiar with the New Zealand band, the best place to start is with ’80s singles collection Kaleidoscope World.
I liken Kaleidoscope World to The Smiths’ Hatful of Hollow, in that it collected early non-LP singles and b-sides and was released around the same time as the band’s proper, disappointing* debut album, and is the more influential record. The Chills formed in 1980 but didn’t actually release their full length debut album, Brave Words, until 1987; that record had great songs but the production and mix didn’t do them any favors. The year before, they rounded up their many amazing singles and EP tracks for Kaleidoscope World, including the haunting “Pink Frost” (which became one of their signature songs), all three of their contributions to the seminal four-way split The Dunedin Double, the singalong “Rolling Moon,” and more. It got a belated US release via Homestead in 1989 and its CD edition added 10 more essentials, including singles “I Love My Leather Jacket” and unemployment anthem “Doledrums,” plus the whole of 1985’s The “Lost” EP. The 2016 Flying Nun vinyl reissue has all those songs and added another six, including an early version of “Oncoming Day” which would show up on their second album, Submarine Bells (one of 1990’s best). Spending a day with Kaleidoscope World is a great way to experience Phillips’ many gifts. Listen below.
* Phillips got a second whack at The Chills’ debut album, releasing a remixed, remastered version of Brave Words this year that fixes a lot of the original release’s deficiencies. (Listen below.) Last year, Phillipps also said that he was working on an album of lost Chills songs, of which there were many, and hopefully that was completed.