Record Reviews

Record review: The Love Junkies – Maybelene (2013, LP)

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Love Junkies

The Love Junkies have been plying their trade in and around Perth since 2009, and with an EP and a couple of singles already under their belts, it’s finally time for a full-length record. With eleven tracks clocking in at around the thirty-five minute mark, this is a direct, in your face rock album, and takes no prisoners from the start. With influences ranging from grunge, blues, and classic rock, the trio waste no time in stating their intentions with opener ‘Heads Down’; a straightforward rock song that could have been lifted from any number of ’90s grunge bands. Similarly to recent records by fellow Perth acts Emperors and Young Revelry, the ’90s alt-rock vibe flavours almost everything on Maybelene, which in this reviewer’s opinion is almost always a good thing. Single ‘Oxymoron’ is a catchy blast of Nirvana-esque grunge that leaves you thinking that these guys would be awesome to see live; all frenetic rock energy and big riffs. ‘Hurt You’ is the token mid-album slow number and veers a bit too close to Britpop territory for comfort, but ultimately only serves to make you more grateful for ‘Black Sheep Blues’; a riff-and-handclap-laden Led Zep-like blues-y number with just the right amount of sleaze. The Love Junkies seem to be flying a bit under the radar with this album, but rock fans will want to check it out, as the loud, raucous, and loose tunes sound like they’d be a lot of fun to get sweaty to. (Independent)

Record review: The Trouble With Templeton – Rookie (2013, LP)

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It’s been a rollercoaster couple of years for Brisbane’s Thomas Calder, singer and songwriter for indie-rock quintet The Trouble With Templeton. After releasing the mini album Bleeders in 2011 and expanding his musical project out of his bedroom and into the form of a five-piece band, The Trouble With Templeton have received considerable amounts of radio play and industry attention both at home and abroad, chiefly in the United States. As recently as March this year Calder bagged the APRA Songwriting Award (and $30,000 worth of industry prizes), and has received warm critical appraisal for the maturity of his song-writing.

Rookie is the band’s second release, and is an assured and accomplished effort, by any standards. At times soft and gentle indie-pop, at others shivering, grandiose balladry, Rookie is chock-full of the type of quality stuff the likes of fellow Brisbane act The Art of Sleeping might write.

Opener ‘Whimpering Child’ is as delicate as the name suggests, with Calder’s controlled vocals almost whispered over restrained guitar lines and soaring vocal harmonies fluttering in the background. Single ‘You Are New’ has been played pretty regularly on Triple J and is probably the most recognisable track; “punched in school, I guess that’s what those scars were for,” hinting at the subject matter. Fourth track and second single ‘Like A Kid’ brings a welcome dose of rock to proceedings and ‘Six Months In A Cast’ has an almost Latin feel despite the less than Fiesta-esque subject matter. Calder’s vocal theatrics are most impressive on ‘I Recorded You’ and there are even some brooding synths on the darker ‘Soldiers’.

This is a confident and promising album by a band who surely have a big future ahead of them.

ROOKIE IS RELEASED AUGUST 2ND. THE TROUBLE WITH TEMPLETON TOUR NATIONALLY STARTING AUGUST 16TH IN MELBOURNE.

Record review: Big Scary – Not Art (2013, LP)

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Melbourne duo Tom Iansek and Jo Syme – a.k.a. Big Scary – aren’t a band to be restricted by genre. On their 2011 debut Vacation, they jumped between minimalist musical styles with ridiculous ease; from White Stripes-esque rockers to moody piano ballads, and they’re back with more of the same on Not Art. Describing their music as alternative pop, the pair have talent dripping from every pore, and they have an album with so much quality and versatility to surely make them more of a household name, both at home and overseas. It’s a slow-burning journey from the start, and one that will reward the patient listener for multiple listens, as Iansek switches between piano, guitar, whispered verses, and big choruses, and Syme hits the drums almost like a lead instrument in a way few drummers before have dared to do before, without ever being a detriment to the song. They can even make a Phil Collins homage sound cool on lead single ‘Phil Collins’, and question the validity of their music as an art-form on ‘Luck Now’. The boy-girl vocals and playful piano tinkling on ‘Twin Rivers’ are a joy to behold, as is harmonic piano ballad ‘Invest’. ‘Belgian Blues’ veers into Jeff Buckley territory, before ‘Final Thoughts With Tom and Jo’ closes the album with a final dose of piano-tinkling, accompanied by a sludgy synth. There is no obviously catchy single, and while they claim their album is not art, it should be appreciated as a whole. It’s most certainly Big, and it’s definitely not Scary; Not Art is quite the masterpiece. (Pieater)

Record review: Maps – Vicissitude (2013, LP)

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Back in 2007, the powers that be saw fit to nominate Northampton native James Chapman’s (a.k.a. Maps) debut album We Can Create for the Mercury Music Prize, among such esteemed company as Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, and eventual winners Klaxons. Six years and two albums later, and it’s hard to see what could have possibly possessed that year’s panel of experts; one has to assume it was a pretty lean year for British music, outside of a few big albums. That album at least had a relatively fresh sound for the time; the electronic shoe-gaze approach to making music being fairly uncharted territory in a year that saw a resurgence in beardy indie bands. The truth is, listening to Vicissitude is a tiring and insipid affair. Opener ‘A.M.A.’ sets the scene for what’s to come by evoking nothing but a face-cracking yawn, as waves of sickly, over-pleasant muzak waft over gentle vocals, and second track ‘Built To Last’ follows in a similar and almost indistinguishable vein. ‘Nicholas’ is probably the worst effort; getting through its six minutes of dull, repetitive dirge is a challenge to test the strongest of constitutions. The only positive thing that can be said about Vicissitude is that it could make pretty good background music in a situation when you don’t need to notice it, but that’s hardly much of a compliment, is it? It has to be assumed that making this album cost someone quite a lot of money, when really they shouldn’t have bothered. (EMI)

Record review: Grant Hart – The Argument (2013, LP)

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Formerly sticksman for legendary ’80s hardcore band Hüsker Dü, Grant Hart moved from the drumstool to the singer-guitarist position long before Dave Grohl successfully did the same, but his subsequent career has enjoyed much less attention than the former Nirvana man. The Argument is Hart’s fourth solo album, following 2009’s excellent Hot Wax, and is a concept album about the epic poem Paradise Lost by 17th century poet John Milton, and Hart’s friendship with notorious beat poet William Burroughs. Sounds heavy, right? In some ways it is, and twenty songs and seventy-two minutes is a lot to get through, but like all Hart’s solo work, it’s laced with a variety of sounds, psychedelic fantasy, literary references, and grand themes; which is enough to keep you interested, and his song-writing is, as ever, first rate throughout. Opener ‘Out Of Chaos’ sees Hart indulging in some spoken-word theatrics, ‘Morningstar’ is a catchy lo-fi pop number, and ‘Letting Me Out’ is a jaunty rockabilly tune, while ‘If We Have The Will’ can only be described as a science-fiction polka. The melancholy ‘Is The Sky The Limit?’ is unquestionably Milton-inspired, as is the wonderfully off-kilter ‘(It Was A) Most Disturbing Dream’, as biblical themes involving the Fall of Man are explored. Translating these songs into forms that can be played live will surely be a major headache for Hart, but The Argument is a unique and brilliant album that showcases an artist who clearly has complete control over every aspect of his work, and the freedom to do exactly what he wants. (Domino)

Record review: Eden Mulholland – Feed The Beast (2013, LP)

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Eden Mulholland

Feed The Beast is the debut solo album from Motocade singer Eden Mulholland, and follows his 2012 Jesus Don’t You Get My Jokes EP. Listing influences like Bill Bryson, contemporary dance, smokes, and sex (probably not at the same time), New Zealander Mulholland effortlessly skips between genres with aplomb on this assured effort. Recorded and mixed by Neil Baldock (Crowded House, Sarah Blasko) in Auckland, Feed The Beast features elements of pop, rock, folk, tribal rhythms, and electronica packed into twelve three-minute tracks. The fact that the opening trio of songs are a catchy stomp (‘Cry Cry Cry’), a gently-ambling number (‘Mekong Delta’) and soaring pop song that starts as a maudlin piano ballad (‘Where Is My Jealousy’) probably says a lot about the variety of sounds on show, and Mulholland’s defiance of classification in general. Single ‘I Will Echo’ is a mid-album high point; a deceptively simple synth-pop song with a sing-along chorus and neat keyboard breaks. The 86-second acoustic title track certainly isn’t the centrepiece, and almost goes unnoticed between the shimmering electronica of ‘Body Double’ and the sound of science fiction nightmares on ‘Beside Itself’. ‘Such A Shame You Must Die’ is by far the most haunting track here, with soaring, ghost-like vocal harmonies and ominous lyrics like “I’m going to find you, I’m going to kill you; you will suffer tonight.” (Mental note: don’t get on Mulholland’s bad side.) Describing Feed The Beast is tricky, as there’s so much going on in such a small space, but the quality and variety of tunes makes this an album worthy of repeated listens. (Mushroom Music)

Record review: Jagwar Ma – Howlin (2013, LP)

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Jagwar Ma

Manchester in 1990 must have been a pretty cool place to be. Bands like The Stone Roses, The Happy Mondays, and The Inspiral Carpets were kick-starting a new musical revolution good enough to see off the manufactured crap-pop that dominated the charts in the ’80s. But for such an iconic group of bands to have so few direct descendants taking on the legacy of ‘Madchester’ music is a little strange. Enter Sydney indie-dance duo Jagwar Ma. Howlin – the band’s debut album – comes complete with the sort of ecstasy-fuelled beats you might expect to see on the dance-floor of The Haçienda nightclub in its heyday; all that’s needed is a few hundred wide-eyed party kids and Bez flailing his arms around on a stage somewhere. Jono Ma and Gabriel Winterfield manage to cross genres and eras with apparent ease throughout the album; going from dance, acid-house, indie-rock, and back again from song to song. Every DJ and dance producer knows not to blow their wad too early, so opener ‘What Love’ is a chilled-out start, easing us into the more up-tempo tunes to come, and ‘Uncertainty’ is surely the brother-of-another-mother of The Happy Mondays’ ‘Hallelujah’, with a dangerously catchy chorus and plenty of synths. The excellent ‘The Throw’ and ‘Come Save Me’ will be well-known to radio listeners and possess perhaps the best hooks, and later track ‘Exercise’ could have been lifted from a Stone Roses album, and ‘Let Her Go’ has shades of cult indie band The Las. Keep an eye on these guys – they’re doing something more than a little special. (Future Classic)

Record review: Jen Cloher – In Blood Memory (2013, LP)

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Back with her third record after four years tending to ailing parents in New Zealand, Melbourne singer-songwriter Jen Cloher is moving away from her indie-folk roots, towards a sound that is rockier, more immediate, and ultimately better than anything she has done before. Recorded in six days and with a title taken from the autobiography of dance choreographer Martha Graham, the crowd-funded In Blood Memory sees her dabble in lo-fi guitar distortion, single-mindedness, and stark honesty throughout, and showcases an artist who has returned to recording with a fresh, energetic approach to her music. Opener ‘Mount Beauty’ wastes no time getting among the riffs, with rough and raw production evident from the start, and the seven-minute ‘Name In Lights’ burns more slowly before building to a big finish. The country-rock lead lines of ‘David Bowie Eyes’ and ‘Toothless Tiger’ are a charming match to Cloher’s voice, which flits between coarse and gentle throughout the album, depending on the mood. ‘Needs’ is dark and brooding, and closer ‘Hold My Hand’ directly references Cloher’s mother’s descent into Alzheimer’s disease, and the confusion and pain that comes with it. Despite the often heavy subject matter, this is a triumphant return for a singer-songwriter who must be considered one of the best in the country at what she does. While it seems like forever ago, Cloher’s 2006 debut was nominated for an ARIA award, and the quality of In Blood Memory surely makes it worthy of the same. (Milk! Records)

Record review: The National – Trouble Will Find Me (2013, LP)

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The National

Ohio natives The National are back with their sixth album, and are set to continue on the upward trajectory that they have been on since the release of their 2001 debut. With each album they have grown and honed their song-writing talents, so far peaking with 2010’s High Violet, but the self-produced Trouble Will Find Me looks set to take the band’s reputation even further.

Around the time of High Violet being released, somebody wrote a description of the band’s music that has always stuck with me. It was on a YouTube or forum comment, and went along the lines of “this band sound like a group of melancholy cowboys sitting around a camp fire after a funeral.” Cowboys they aren’t, but melancholy they certainly are; and on Trouble Will Find Me they strip back their emotions to their leanest forms yet. Anyone expecting any major sonic shift by the quintet will be disappointed, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

Opener ‘I Should Live In Salt’ is a gentle and beguiling start, with singer Matt Berninger repeating the haunting line “you should know me better than that.” Lead single ‘Demons’ follows, led by Berninger’s wonderfully rich baritone, and sees him exclaiming “when I walk into a room, I do not light it up… fuck!” Blink and you’ll miss the uncharacteristic expletive.

Berninger seemingly goes through a range of moods throughout the album; sounding desperately fragile on ‘Don’t Swallow The Cap’ and ‘Fireproof’, more defiant on ‘Sea of Love’, and stirringly intense on ‘Heavenfaced’. ‘I Need My Girl’ is a late-album highlight; a sparsely melodic ballad with excellent guitar work by Bryce Dessner.

Cameos by Sufjan Stevens, Sharon van Etten, and St. Vincent largely go unnoticed, but add interesting footnotes to another exhilarating album by The National. Trouble Will Find Me won’t cheer you up on rainy day, but it’s still a mighty fine album.

TROUBLE WILL FIND ME IS OUT NOW

Record review: Black Star Riders – All Hell Breaks Loose (2013, LP)

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black star riders

When the most recent Thin Lizzy line-up came together in 2010 – twenty-four years after the death of founder and songwriter Phil Lynott – it was at a time when the band’s future was uncertain at best. However, with original drummer Brian Downey back on board, the Ricky Warwick-fronted version of the group brought a new lease of life to Lizzy’s songs, and earned rave reviews from fans new and old. Finding themselves bursting at the seams with new material, yet thinking it inappropriate to release anything under the Thin Lizzy moniker, the band formed Black Star Riders. With no chance of the Lizzy legacy being harmed, the pressure was off, and the resulting album is a solid collection of classic rock songs; all twin lead guitars and big choruses. Second track ‘Bound For Glory’ is the most Thin Lizzy-esque song on show, with Scott Gorham’s guitar lines and Warwick’s Lynott-like vocals sounding like a lot of the band’s late ’70s output, while ‘Kingdom of the Lost’ adds a Celtic flavour, in a nod to Lizzy’s Irish roots. The title track could have been plucked from Thunder And Lightning, and the customary extended rock jam comes at the end of closer ‘Blues Ain’t So Bad’. How much mileage this band has remains to be seen, as all members are involved in other projects and Scott Gorham is in his sixties, but if this is to be the final chapter of a legendary band’s career that began in 1969, it’s a fittingly good one. (Nuclear Blast)

Record review: The Red Paintings – The Revolution Is Never Coming (2013, LP)

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Red Paintings

Orchestral art rock: three words that don’t exactly get the fires of primitive musical lust burning deep in the loins of the average punter wanting temporary escape from the humdrum routine of daily drudgery. In large part a complex form of music, the very suggestion of it evokes images of groups of misguided, over-educated tragics plucking lutes and banging on whale bones while dressed as failed auditionees from the latest Lord Of The Rings movie.

HOWEVER: for every rule an exception, and here it comes in the form of Los Angeles via Brisbane conceptual outfit The Red Paintings.

For all intents and purposes, The Red Paintings consists of one man: singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Trash McSweeney (not an Irish garbage collector), whose sprawling and sometimes twisted visions are the basis for his band’s songs. On tour, the group is a five-piece, expanded to include orchestral, choral, and performance art elements into their act, with musical influences as diverse as Mogwai, Muse, and Japanese art rock group Envy.

The range of musical ideas on The Revolution is Never Coming is quite simply, staggering, and will have your head in a spin if you can stand the pace. From the delicate piano and strings of opener ‘Vampires’, to the crushing metal bawling of second track ‘Dead Children’, and the fairy-folk flitterings of ‘Dead Adult’ (noticing a pattern here?) the scope is mind boggling.

‘Easps’ begins with what sounds like something out of the Richard Burton-narrated version of War of the Worlds, as some sort of alien invasion is described, before a sudden blast of heavy alt-rock is unleashed. ‘The Fall of Rome’ follows in a similar vein; all heavily distorted guitars and strings, as does ‘Street’. Listening to this album through is like descending into some dark dream, spiralling out of control and with no end in sight.

‘Hong Kong’ lulls you into a false sense of low-tempo relaxation before once again unleashing a torrent of devastation, and closer ‘Revolution’ begins with a nightmarishly scratchy violin before the sounds of bloody stabbing death and brutal guitars take over, along with some heavy cussin’ and a tirade against religion.

The Revolution is Never Coming: allow yourself to slide deep into the belly of the beast – it’s quite the ride.

Record review: Buchanan – Human Spring (2013, LP)

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Buchanan

Having been around for four years and with two EPs under their belts, it’s time for Melbourne indie-pop band Buchanan to drop their debut album. Lead by Josh Simons, the band put touring on hold, virtually dropping off the radar in recent months to make this record, aided with production by Catherine Marks (Foals, Interpol) and mastering by Geoff Pesche (LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead). While it’s clear the band are trying to make the type of anthemic, atmospheric pop carried off so expertly by the likes of The Temper Trap and Two Door Cinema Club, most of the tracks fall so disappointingly short. Listening to the opening trio of ‘Act Natural’, ‘Par Avion’, and ‘The Punch’ is an exercise in waiting for the good stuff to start, before fourth song ‘Temptation’ ups the quality slightly by being one of the darker tunes on the album. Penultimate song ‘The Few’ has shades of Empire of the Sun, making it one of the more tolerable efforts, and closer ‘An All Clear?’ finishes the album on a strong note. The title track – also the lead single – is a slightly more ambitious affair than anything else one the album; all grandiose strings and soaring choruses, and sounds great in parts, although the majority of the tunes on Human Spring sound like they’d be most at home on the soundtrack of a crappy rom-com, making this one of the more forgettable releases of recent months. (Independent)

Record review: Surfer Blood – Pythons (2013, LP)

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Let’s get this straight from the start: I’m a BIG fan of Surfer Blood. For me, they fill a hole that exists somewhere between when Weezer stopped being the coolest indie band around, The Strokes got lazy with their output, and the Pavement reunion died on its arse with an indifferent shrug of the shoulders. The Florida quartet have only been knocking around since 2009, but in that time they have put out an outstanding debut album in Astro Coast in 2010, and a short but solid EP in 2011’s Tarot Classics.

Frontman John-Paul Pitts claimed he unwittingly became part of the lo-fi movement by virtue of his band recording their debut album on less-than-adequate equipment in his apartment. Keen to avoid being pigeon-holed as part of a movement he felt no connection to, Pitts made sure Tarot Classics was as crisp a recording as they come. Satisfyingly, Pythons has elements of both these records; although recording was crammed into a hectic eight-week period, leaving no room for experimentation, but with plenty of guitars lathered over everything the band does.

With ten tracks of around three minutes each, this could be the most perfectly-rounded guitar pop record of recent months. Opener and single ‘Demon Dance’ is classic Surfer Blood; all dual guitars, snappy choruses, and pleading lyrics. ‘Gravity’ is more Tarot Classics than Astro Coast, and gets amongst the catchiness with a much greater sense of urgency.

‘I Was Wrong’ sees Pitts in an uncharacteristically brooding mode, channelling his inner Morissey, which is followed by ‘Squeezing Blood’; a possibly dark tale masquerading as a melodic, infectiously upbeat Beach Boys-esque track.

‘Blair Witch’ isn’t as scary as it sounds, being one of the lighter tracks on the album, with Pitts declaring “the more I see love, the more I need love.” ‘Needles and Pins’ isn’t a cover of that song, but is fairly dreary all the same, while final track ‘Prom Song’ could be a talented Wheatus for the twenty-first century, and a nice way to finish the album.

Surfer Blood have always flown a bit under the radar, but if there’s at least one big single on this album, it should be enough to see them do well, although Surfer Blood don’t seem to be the type of band who would be comfortable getting “big”.

Record review: Jinja Safari – Jinja Safari (2013, LP)

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Upon hitting the play button on the new Jinja Safari album, I experienced a dark and awful moment in which I thought I had somehow stumbled upon a Paul Simon album circa 1990. Desperately scrambling to find the stop button, I spilt my coffee over a book I’d borrowed from a friend, burnt my thumb with the hot liquid, and suffered a mild panic attack brought on by the thought that I was voluntarily listening to Paul Simon. Thankfully the faux-world-music-jungle-drum vibes of opener ‘Apple’ quickly melted away (and the book soon dried off quite nicely), leaving nothing but an album of catchy indie pop and a moderately throbbing thumb. The Sydney quintet’s second full length album comes with the pressure of high expectation, on the back of a couple of solid EPs, a well-received album in 2011, and a reputation for a killer live show. ‘Oh Benzo!’ has a funky bass-line and a catchy chorus that should get crowds singing along when played lived, while ‘Harrison’ displays the band’s Indian influences with a short sitar interlude. Single ‘Plagiarist’ has received heavy radio rotation in recent weeks, making it the most recognisable track; its upbeat melodies and vocal harmonies are simply infectious, and later track ‘Source of the Nile’ has Himalayan percussion accompanying another melodic vocal performance and breezy guitars. It could be argued that some songs blur into each other without any real noticeable difference, but overall this album is a quality melting pot of global pop influences. (Island/Universal)

Record review: A Cartoon Graveyard – The Men Who Stole Your Horse Are In The Woods With My Friend (2013, LP)

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cartoon grave

In the Replacements’ song ‘Alex Chilton’, Paul Westerberg declares his love of a certain under-appreciated band of ’70s power-pop pioneers by declaring “I never travel far, without a little Big Star,” before letting loose with a melodic guitar solo that could have come straight from the fingers of Chilton himself. A quick listen to the debut album from Brisbane indie-pop trio A Cartoon Graveyard reveals that they too have surely studied at the college of Chilton: the ridiculously titled The Men Who Stole Your Horse Are In The Woods With My Friend is full of ’70s pop melodies, catchy choruses, lo-fi riffs, and enough goofy lyrics to put even the most snobby music fan at ease.

Despite being recorded in a DIY home studio, this independently-released album has impressive range and sounds great. Opener ‘Over Water’ is a catchy mix of scratchy guitar riffs and a busy rhythm section, and is followed by perhaps the best song on the album – and certainly the most Big Star-esque – ‘Speaks Volumes’; a track that could be lifted straight from #1 Record. There’s something about this song that speaks of lost times and musical eras gone by that’s pretty special.

Showing that they don’t take themselves too seriously is lead single ‘Wayne The Atom’; a quirky, sci-fi tinged track with nonsensical lyrics like “Microwaves are in your head, you woke to find the pilot dead” before some uncharacteristically heavy riffing in the final third of the song.

Elsewhere, there’s an interesting instrumental Spanish guitar track in ‘Carlotta Valdes’ (possibly named for an unseen character in Hitchcock’s Vertigo), and the gothic theatrics of ‘Any Day Now’.

While the album runs out of steam slightly towards the end, there are enough ideas and pop hooks on show here to make this an ear-catching release. Well played, sirs.

Review score: 8.0 out of 10.

THE MEN WHO STOLE YOUR HORSE ARE IN THE WOODS WITH MY FRIEND IS OUT NOW. A CARTOON GRAVEYARD PLAY BLACK BEAR LODGE, BRISBANE ON JUNE 19.