''How Bizarre'' is the only album by the

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

musical group OMC, released in 1996. It was first released on 27 September under the Huh!

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

, issued by PolyGram

, and manufactured and marketed by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

on 25 February 1997 in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The album garnered a surprised, but generally positive reaction from critics; it was considered so bold and unique that it could not be compared to anything, and journalists struggled to classify it as one thing or another. ''How Bizarre'' reached number 5 in its native New Zealand and number 40 on the ''Billboard'' 200, spawning four

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

s: the

title track A title track is a song that has the same name as the album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-t ...

, "Right On", " On the Run" and "Land of Plenty". It was also

certified Gold Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA), denoting sales of over 500,000 copies in that country, becoming the best-selling

Urban Pasifika Urban Pasifika (also known as Urban Pacific and Urban Pacifika) is a New Zealand subgenre of hip hop, that developed primarily among Pasifika New Zealanders in South Auckland. Drawn from alternative hip hop and R&B influences, it was quickly bl ...

album. ''How Bizarre'' was reissued globally on vinyl for the first time on April 16, 2021, remastered by Alan Jansson.

Critical reception

Critical reception was mixed to positive.

Chuck Eddy Chuck Eddy (born November 26, 1960) is an American music journalist. Life and career Chuck Eddy was born in Detroit, Michigan. After starting his journalism career with ''The Village Voice'' and ''Creem'', where he published one of the first nati ...

, writing for ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'', praised the overall musicianship throughout the album, highlighting the update to the "angelic-melancholy-through-odd-instrumentation aesthetic" pioneered by

Flying Nun Records Flying Nun Records is a New Zealand independent record label formed in Christchurch in 1981 by music store manager Roger Shepherd. Described by ''The Guardian'' as "one of the world's great independent labels", Flying Nun is notable for bringi ...

, and

Pauly Fuemana Paul Lawrence Fuemana (8 February 1969 – 31 January 2010) was a New Zealand singer, songwriter and musician from Auckland. One of the first globally successful pioneers of his country's unique style of hip-hop, Fuemana was one of New Zealand's ...

's vocal performance resembling that of

Billy Ocean Leslie Sebastian Charles (born 21 January 1950), known professionally as Billy Ocean, is a Trinidadian-born British singer and songwriter. Between 1976 and 1988, he had a series of hit songs in the UK and internationally. After releasing sev ...

and

R. B. Greaves Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves III (28 November 1943 – 27 September 2012) was an American singer who had chart success in 1969 with the pop single "Take a Letter Maria". A number two hit on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, ...

. Eddy said OMC crafted a genre hybrid that mixes

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...

from 1996, reggae from 1971 and recent pop music that "dour mid-'90s U.S. radio might not know what to do with it." Thom Owens of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

called the record "an intriguing fusion of worldbeat rhythms and urban soul that never manages to catch fire, despite several strong grooves and soulful fusions."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

cited the title track and "On the Run" as "choice cuts", indicating good songs on "an album that isn't worth your time or money.". Both '' Q'' and ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in Hoodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Mojo'' (2017 film), a 2017 Indian Kannada drama film written and directed by Sreesha Belakvaadi * '' ...

'' magazines gave the album four out of five stars and it was named Album of the Year by publications in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Track listing

* Track 11 was only on the second release of this album, issued in September 1997 in the US only.

Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes. OMC *Pauly Fuemana – vocals, guitar *Alan Jansson – engineering, keyboards, programming, guitar ("Right On") Additional musicians *Sina Saipaia – backing vocals ("How Bizarre", "Right On") *Lee Baker – guitar ("How Bizarre", "Right On") *Hershal Herscher – accordion ("How Bizarre") *George Chisholm – trumpet ("How Bizarre", "Right On") *Glenn Campbell – pedal steel guitar ("Right On"), dobro guitar ("Breaking My Heart") *Geoffrey Heath – cello ("Pours Out Your Eyes") *Steve Robinson – piano ("Pours Out Your Eyes"), hammond organ ("Land of Plenty") *Steve Kellner – drums ("Pours Out Your Eyes", "She Loves Italian") *Mia Camilleri – French horn ("Pours Out Your Eyes", "Land of Plenty") *Walter Bianco – saxophone ("Breaking My Heart") *Harmon – tea chest bass ("Breaking My Heart") *Taisha – backing vocals ("Land of Plenty") *Christine Fuemana – backing vocals ("Land of Plenty") *James Gaylyn – drums ("Angel in Disguise") *Juliet Primrose – violin ("Angel in Disguise") *Manuel Bundy – scratching ("Lingo with the Gringo") Production *Rick Huntington – additional mixing and engineering Artwork *Deborah Smith – photography *Richard Kingsford – design

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1996 debut albums OMC (band) albums PolyGram albums Mercury Records albums