Toy Love

It’s a quick, scrappy collection of often quick and scrappy songs, at once catchy as hell and with evidence of the group’s partial roots in the Dunedin punk band The Enemy. But one listen to Toy Love’s sole album and it’s little surprise to sense how the quintet both had a legendary live reputation in both its New Zealand home and in Australia, and how so much of NZ indie rock followed from it. Chris Knox’s singing is a bright, wiry kick much like Alec Bathgate’s guitar playing; Jane Walker’s keyboards add warm, woozy touches, and the whole is simply an immediate delight.