Bill Direen & the Builders, Divine Comedia (side A)

Bill Direen is one of the less-remembered figures from the early-80s in New Zealand. While Flying Nun reissued his early work on CD, the original vinyl seems to have been self-released on his South Indies label.  And while his music is lo-fi and generally catchy, it borrows from slightly different influences than seems typical of the early Flying Nun releases.  Direen introduced more confusion by varying the name on his releases (the identities Bilders, Builders, and Bill Direen all seem to have been used), and through extreme stylistic diversity.  The 1988 compilation Divine Comedia assembles songs that he originally released between 1981 and 1987.  The compilation kicks off with 1985's "Black Doors", which vaguely resembles the Minutemen, then leaps to a stripped-down acoustic song, "Clifford Flat".  Both songs execute their styles well, but, apart from Direen's recognizable voice, it's hard to find much in common.  The third song, "Do the Alligator", falls closer to the proto-indie style that is usually associated with Flying Nun.  Perhaps the most amazing part is that these three dissimilar tracks all originally appeared on the same LP, 1985's CoNCH3.  This incongruous approach continues through the rest of the album.  Divine Comedia assembles a set of great tracks from an overlooked songwriter, but listening to it definitely gives little insight into the creative vision of an artist who makes frequent stylistic leaps.  The cheap photograph and design of the cover also fail to give any insight into this oddly-arranged compilation.