End Times Undone was recorded in David Kilgour & the Heavy 8's in their native New Zealand between 2012 and 2014, but that’s a bit misleading. In fact, very misleading. That span covering three calendar years suggests this might be one of those albums that was slaved over, with weeks-upon-months spent recording and then mixing until every minor detail was perfected. The opposite is true. End Times Undone took so long to finish only because Kilgour assembled his bandmates every four or five months, and then only for a couple days at a time. And when they convened, the tape was rolling almost from the start.

“We’ve become so obsessed with capturing the creative moment as early as possible when we get together,” Kilgour says of making music with guitarist Tony de Raad, bassist Tom Bell, and drummer Taane Tokona.

It’s the perfect way for Kilgour to operate these days, more than 30 years into a career that is equally compelling, consistent, and influential. From his first recordings with The Clean, the iconic band who remain active and whose legend deservedly grows mightier every year, Kilgour has had a distinct sound that has inhabited all of his albums and sounds fresh with every new release.

End Times Undone will be released shortly after a reissue of The Clean’s Anthology, a 46-track set that serves as the band’s defining document that can attest to their pantheon status. End Times Undone is a perfect companion piece to that collection that left off in 1996, and in many ways feels like it could have simply been the next album helmed by Kilgour instead of one that comes nearly 20 years later. That’s what happens when you have an artist so comfortable with his sound and approach that you just turn on the amps and start playing.

—David Malitz