How Bizarre 25 at

• Published date: 17 April 2021

Released in late-December 1995, How Bizarre quickly became the soundtrack to New Zealand’s summer, reaching No 1 for several weeks and shifting such huge quantities it soon ranked among our biggest-ever sellers. Crossing the Tasman, it repeated the feat there — No 1 for five weeks, then No 2 for another two, sticking around their charts for five months — before becoming a huge summer hit in the UK and quickly replicating this success across many European nations. Japan, Singapore, Malaysia all loved this quirky Kiwi song and Canadians went ballistic for How Bizarre.

Finally, the biggest and toughest market in the world embraced OMC: How Bizarre topped the US charts, getting millions of spins on radio and in clubs while the OMC album — called How Bizarre — sold millions of CDs. The mid-1990s were the height of the CD era. Vinyl had been relegated to the basement, cassettes were on their way out and downloading or streaming music hadn’t yet been invented.

How Bizarre was a first on many fronts: the biggest international hit ever by a New Zealander and first to be recorded in New Zealand — from John Rowles to Crowded House, all our prior international hitmakers recorded in the UK, US or Australia. And the only time a Kiwi record label, Huh! Records, has scored a worldwide hit in some 70 years of local music being released here. Lorde’s worldwide smash Royals is the only record to replicate OMC’s vast success.

Fittingly, having reached a quarter-century, How Bizarre, the album, has now been remastered and reissued for the very first time on vinyl: loaded with classic tunes, superbly arranged and produced, I can’t think of another home-grown album that so brilliantly blends the essence of a Māori singalong — strummed guitar, big chorus, huge sense of fun — with a sonic soundscape encompassing mariachi trumpets, Hawaiian steel guitar, French horns, hip-hop beats and scratching, mewling synthesisers, strings, handclaps, sweetened choruses and more. Actually, thinking about it, I’m willing to go out on a limb: How Bizarre’s the best Kiwi album ever.

Such an assertion is likely to generate plenty of disagreement. Esteemed broadcaster Nick Bollinger’s book 100 Essential New Zealand Albums includes plenty of Kiwi rock, pop, soul, disco and blues albums, but not OMC. Radio New Zealand regularly hosts blokes chatting about LPs by The Verlaines or Chills. And anything involving the Finn brothers tends to be treated with reverence. But for the past quarter-century, OMC...