The Chills

★★★ Scatterbrain FIRE. CD/DL/LP

New Zealand’s enduring wonky popsters put their leader’s past behind them.

Scatterbrain is the first Chills album since their guiding light, Martin Phillipps, laid bare the life-threatening impact of his involvement with alcohol and drugs in the 2019 documentary The Chills: The Triumph And Tragedy Of Martin Phillipps. Musically, this is through-and-through a Chills album, where Phillipps and his ever-mutable supporting players fuse moodiness with his instinctive feel for pop. The rolling rhythms and folky melodies are present and correct. But Scatterbrain is about more than the music. “Give me the power of ancient stones,” sings Phillipps on the album’s opener, Monolith. “You’re immortal, but I’ll have to let you go,” he declares on You’re Immortal. Elsewhere, Little Alien’s subject is implored to “battle on”. Overall, The Chills’ seventh album is about Phillipps drawing a line between now and what was seen on screen, gathering strength and moving forward.