Album Review - Marlon Williams - Te Whare Tiwekaweka
Review By: Faith Hamblyn
Artist/Band Name: Marlon Williams
Album Name: Te Whare Tīwekaweka
Label: Universal Music
Release Date: 4th April 2025
Of the Lyttelton country music duo Delaney Davidson and Marlon Williams, my heart is naturally drawn to Tom Waits-y Davidson, but that’s largely due to Marlon Williams, at the time, being ostensibly an enfant terrible looking for cheeky kicks in those days, strolling the beach in his old-timey underwear in What’s Chasing You. In true Kiwi style, he’s self-deprecating, of course, but he’s also an artist that found a way to be literally hot in his video. What’s he up to a decade down the line? A whole lot, it turns out. And it’s resulted in the beautiful testament of his new album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka.
Williams flirted with Hollywood in 2018’s exceptional A Star Is Born. He subsequently had his own movie exploring life on the road in Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds. But his soul is clearly anchored here at home. Te Whare Tīwekaweka opens with just his vocal in E Mawehe Ana Au, where it’s only the listener’s ears and his fine, confessional vibrato. It acts as a welcome into the album, which is all in te reo Māori, and it’s a stripped-down track that conveys the delicate pain of growth, being split between two worlds.
Kei Te Mārama sees Marlon back in rambling-man ways, a bit more boisterous in his tale of leaving his lover – no question of being tied down. But the single, the third track Aua Atu Rā, is where we hear his voice at its sweetest, with ‘50s-style guitar and a crooning vocal. He’s leaving you, e hine, but doesn’t it sound dreamy? After all, where would country be if not for shacking up and splitting?
Me Uaua Kē is a tale of our beautiful island home, beautiful and ancient and where our tīpuna have ties to us. You can drape over a loved one and sway to its rhythm, a world all of your own, but Williams sings with a choir on this one – it’s about whānau.
Kāhore E Manu E, featuring Lorde, is contemplative, with just them and a piano to back them. Marlon’s voice mirrors the break in Lorde’s, and it gives it a hesitancy that makes this simple love song sung together something stronger. He takes the higher harmony so that her voice takes flight as they intertwine.
So the two worlds of Te Whare Tīwekaweka might be the meandering path of a troubadour, always leaving the home he loves, or it could be Marlon growing up from a cocky young man into finding history and love, a gravitas in his instrument. He can make you dance, and he can share a stage with Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born, but it might be his time to dig deeper than swoony ballads, to where love and aroha lie. Te Whare Tīwekaweka sounds like the romance of evening Pacific Island beaches and retro Brylcreem smooching, but my favourite lyric is in the opening track, where there’s a new depth to his voice, a new introspection to his lyrics of passing love, and a rich sound. He sings of hearts full of fun and hearts on the run and the tattoo that can be left -
Tē tau te waituhi nei/ Taku uhi hāpūpū/ Kaniawhea atu ē/ Kua waihotia he nawe.
The ink never settled/ My chisel is blunt/ To you my remorse/ It left behind a scar.
RATING: 4.5 Stars
Other Credits:
Co-producer Mark ‘Merk’ Perkins
Artist Jennifer Rendall
Co-writer KOMMI
Guest artist Lorde
