Hawaii (album)
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| Studio album by The High Llamas | ||||
| Released | 25 March 1996 | |||
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| Length | 114:48 | |||
| Label | V2 | |||
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| The High Llamas chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Hawaii | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
Hawaii is the third studio album by the Anglo-Irish avant-pop band the High Llamas, released on 25 March 1996 on V2 Records. The arrangements of Hawaii incorporate more electronic sounds than its predecessor Gideon Gaye (1994), while its lyrics loosely address themes of nomadism, nostalgia, film and musical theatre, and the effects of colonialism. The record peaked at 62 on the UK Albums Chart for a one-week stay. In the United States, the album was issued with a 40-minute bonus CD containing material that was previously unreleased in that region.
Bandleader Sean O'Hagan described the album as a fusion between the music of the "post mid-European era" and the "really screwed up West Coast American sort of music, of the Wrecking Crew variety". Academic Theodore Gracyk characterized the majority of Hawaii as "pay[ing] unmistakable homage to Brian Wilson's arrangements on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966). More specifically, they recall Pet Sounds' distinctive wash of background vocal harmonies, lush but wordless, against piano, melodic bass punctuation, drum fills, and sleigh bells." On the album's influences, music critic Tim Page writes: "Here, in no particular order, we find flashes of Wilson, Henry Mancini, harpsichord flourishes, 'Ramona'-style Mexican American music (complete with mariachi pulses and firefly strings), melodies that would sound just right around a campfire, swooning Hawaiian guitars, long trumpet solos that would have done Bunny Berigan proud, and just about everything else -- layer upon layer."
In the mid 1990s, Wilson was struggling to organize a comeback album with the Beach Boys and collaborator Andy Paley. After the group's Bruce Johnston heard Hawaii, an unsuccessful attempt was made to coordinate a collaboration between O'Hagan and Wilson. According to O'Hagan, he attended one meeting with Wilson and two with the Beach Boys, but the "two separate camps" couldn't be reconciled.
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