Submarine Bells LP

Submarine Bells marked the jump from New Zealand's independent Flying Nun label to the major-label system, landing on Slash, a Warner Bros. imprint, in 1990. That jump paid off at home, where the album topped the New Zealand albums chart and won Best Album at that year's New Zealand Music Awards, with "Heavenly Pop Hit" carrying it onto the Billboard Modern Rock chart in the US as well. Built around Martin Phillipps's wiry, tightly wound songwriting, it's the record most often pointed to as the high point of the jangly Dunedin sound New Zealand built its reputation on.