What’s Yours and Mine is the long awaited and much anticipated third album from seminal Singapore indie rock band, The Oddfellows. Released thirty years on from Teenage Head, the band’s landmark debut album, What’s Yours and Mine is an excellent comeback which while keeping everything The Oddfellows are beloved for but adding also a layer of maturity and confidence to the mix as well.
It’s no exaggeration to state that Teenage Head kickstarted the Singapore indie music scene of the 1990s in earnest. While it is accurate to credit the likes of Zircon Lounge (alternative rock), Opposition Party (punk) and Corporate Toil (electronica) with pioneering status as far as laying the groundwork for indie bands and musicians to build on for the rest of the 1990s, The Oddfellows’ lofi melodic sincerity inspired a slew of like-minded Singaporeans to form bands and make music for the sheer love of it!
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What’s Yours and Mine is a natural treasure trove of singalong tunes and 1990s alternative rock sensibilities – informed by the influences of The Replacements, REM, Teenage Fanclub, Big Star – an indie rock style that has been appropriated by contemporary pop starlets like Olivia Rodrigo and Beabadoobee. There is a very potent folk-rock flavour in songs like “You Calm Me Down” and “Stronger (Song for Jacq)” for example, while the likes of “Where’s Your Heart” and “Out of My Head” explore darker rock tropes effectively.
What’s Yours and Mine is a triumph on many levels – not least for buttressing the idea that music making is essential to confirm once again that Singaporean creativity is as potent as it ever was. Remembering that the 1990s Singapore indie music scene was a grassroots arts movement that succeeded despite lack of government intervention and any support ecosystem whatsoever, the return of The Oddfellows will hopefully spark a revival of an appreciation of that special epoch in Singapore rock history. It begins here.
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