''Serious Tam'' is the second studio album by
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
n musician
George Telek
George Telek Mamua Order of the British Empire, MBE, commonly known simply as Telek, is a musician and singer from Papua New Guinea. He has won one ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Award for this 1997 self-titled album. Telek sings in his native language, K ...
. The album was released in July 2000. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 2001
The 15th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards) were held on 30 October 2001 at the Capitol Theatre. Rock band Powderfinger won the most awards with six from eight nominations. Lea ...
, the album was nominated for
ARIA Award for Best World Music Album
The ARIA Music Award for Best World Music Album, is an award presented within the Fine Arts Awards at the annual ARIA Music Awards. It was inaugurated in 1995 as Best Folk/World/Traditional Release. The ARIA Awards recognise "the many achieve ...
.
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
voted the album as 'Best Pop Album of 2000.
Reception
Diana Potts from
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 ...
said "Translated, most of the songs on ''Serious Tam'' are about the common themes of daily life and passionate love. This a definite global pop album with an ethnic twist. ''Serious Tams tribal drum sounds and simplicity will take the listener to a better, more serene place."
Josef Woodard from Jazz Times said "Producer David Bridie brings Telek into popish relief, layering on guitars, backbeats and synth sounds on the album ''Serious Tam''. A singer of no small talents, Telek shows his interest in exploring indigenous roots, but there are genuine Beatlesque roots, as well, and enough echoes of
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...
to make one wonder about a trickle-down 'company sound' over at Realworld. Most of the lyrics are in the Tolai tongue, Kuanuan and Tok Pisin (Pidgin English) and recount the life of the Tolai people, then and now."
In a review by The Times, the reviewer said "One phenomenal song follows another...Telek's voice on its own is a thing of rare beauty...a magical album".
Li Robbins said "Telek takes the music of Papua New Guinea's Tolai people, and updates it with keyboards, electric bass and guitar, and ambient sounds. The hybrid is for the most part executed with a sure hand, excepting the track Waitpela Gras, where vestiges of prog rock suddenly make an unwelcome visit -- a heavy-handedness sadly all too regular a feature of Realworld recordings. Overall though, it's charming, and sweetly evocative music."
Billboard said "The songs speak of common experiences, love, and magic charms. Once some conventional, and not-so-conventional, Western instrumentation was added to this music, the arrangements emerged as a very appealing traditional/world pop fusion."
Track listing
# "Midal" - 4:12
# "Bunaik" - 5:13
# "To Pol" - 4:05
# "Serious Tam" - 2:14
# "Boystown" - 4:48
# "Iamagit" - 2:35
# "Barturana (Duke of Yorks)" - 3:10
# "Tolili" - 2:19
# "Balamaris" - 4:04
# "Go Ralom" - 3:43
# "Tolili Kundu" - 2:27
# "Waitpela Gras" - 3:02
# "Lili" - 4:18
# "Tutana Kuraip" - 2:43
# "Talaigu" - 2:26
# "Ririwon" - 1:46
# "Sori Tru" - 3:31
(Australian only bonus track)
# "Paska" - 3:22
(Australian only bonus track)
# "Paliwo" - 3:35
(Australian only bonus track)
Release history
References
{{Authority control
2000 albums