STACK #139 May 2016

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Sweet Jean Monday to Friday

Tinpan Orange Love Is A Dog Tinpan Orange’s fifth album is filled with water references. Emily Lubitz sings of rivers and rafts, sailing and the sea, and there’s a dark undercurrent with her ethereal voice slowly dragging you under. “The world has gone crazy,” she purrs in Fools and Cowboys . “Don’t do the things that I have regretted.” Lubitz is ably backed by her guitarist brother Jesse. Indeed, this is a family affair – the album is beautifully produced by Lubitz’s husband, The Cat Empire’s Harry Angus, who also has a hand in the songwriting. The result is dreamy folk. It lilts and it lingers, providing light across the water. (Independent) Jeff Jenkins

Sweet Jean’s debut album, Dear Departure , was good. Monday To Friday is great. The interplay between Alice Keath and Sime Nugent is exquisite. Keath’s voice floats, but don’t be deceived – there’s a potent edge to these songs. “It’s not a grin,” Keath sings in Main Street , “these are my teeth.” Still Here drips with heartbreak and -ache, but there’s a sense of humour on show in NYD . “I don’t want to leave alone,” Keath declares, “but there’s no one at this party that I want to take home.” And to round it all off, the album concludes with a delightfully downbeat cover of Womack &Womack’s Teardrops . (ABC/Universal) Jeff Jenkins

Sahara Beck Panacea

She might fade in on a breeze of girly la-las but when Sahara Beck says Here It Comes , you better watch out. Her slow-building half-whisper of anticipation hits its peak at the three-minute mark with a thrashing riposte to Pink Floyd's Great Gig In The Sky : all rock-operatic howls and washes

of synth/guitar freak-out. The wham-bam-glam opener segues into a percussive snapshot of some street nutter dancing to his own drum, who turns out to be her baby. That's him again in Spinning Time : another outsider who wears his madness like a badge. It figures. On her second album, the Darwin singer-songwriter endorses her claim to the eccentric prodigy lineage that links Kate Bush to Cyndi Lauper to Kate Miller-Heidke. Her voice is too elastic to play normal and her imagination swings like a gate from the street corner one-man-band oom-pah of Crack Bang Bang to the sultry western twang of I'm In Love ; from the sleepy-time Andrews Sisters chorus of Everybody Wants Noise to the melodramatic mini- symphony of Mother Mother and a waltzing warm bath finale in Don't Hold Your Breath . Phew. She warned us it was coming. (Create/Control) Michael Dwyer

MUSIC

Sturgill Simpson A Sailor's Guide To Earth Sturgill Simpson woke up Nashville with his highly acclaimed second album Metamodern Sounds In Country Music (2014). This is his much anticipated follow-up. Described as the “new wave” of country, Simpson has written a concept album in a song cycle as a letter to his young son. Self-produced, the release offers eight original songs of parental advice plus an open-hearted cover of Nirvana’s In Bloom . This is country Simpson’s way, dripping in twangin’ pedal steel, '60s countrypolitan strings, vintage soul and funk horns courtesy of The Dap Kings, and distinctive country drawl. Outlaw country of our time. ( Atlantic Records/Warner) Denise Hylands

Hayes Carll Lovers And Leavers

Highasakite Camp Echo

Wild Belle Dreamland

Texas singer-songwriter Hayes Carll has built a reputation as a larrikin whose stories are filled with mischievous humour. But on his first album in five years the good time yarns, the laughs, the hoots and the hollers of his previous records are gone. Lovers And Leavers finds him expressing his personal, heartfelt confessions of old love, new love and life changes that have transpired. Produced by Joe Henry (Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello), Carll’s stripped- back country folk sound and storytelling show signs of maturity that highlight the true talent of this first-rate songwriter. (ThirtyTigers/CookingVinyl) Denise Hylands

The 'echo' aspect of this award- winning five-piece's third album resonates throughout the entire disc; its tribal cry flows out of the popping synths on opener My Name Is Liar , and continues through the lyrics as a gleeful reminder that “hey, we just said this, please listen again.” And unsurprisingly, the release is highly worthy of a second spin. One can’t help but pick up an Ellie Goulding- esque vibe, and it’s certainly feasible that the Norweigan group had her On [Their] Mind s during production. Golden Ticket is as upbeat as it is contemplative, and Someone Who’ll Get It has endured its fair share of radio play and come out still palatable, which is more than can be said for most. (Caroline) Alesha Kolbe

Jamaica and Wild Belle seem to have cancelled each other out on the Chicago duo's second album. Reggae rhythms, bone-dry sax and other earthy elements were upfront and funky on the likes of Keep You and Another Girl on their 2013 debut, Isles . Despite this year's exotic recording pit stop, the destination is more detached and atmospheric as Natalie Bergman prowls the sultry soundscapes of her brother Elliot like a sleepwalking diva. The sax is back on the single Throw Down Your Guns, and the rhythmic lurches of Cannonball and The One That Got Away throw timely spanners into a smoothly-programmed machine. (Columbia) Michael Dwyer

MAY 2016

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