STACK June 2016 Issue 140

90 / 105

DOWNLOAD THE
FREE
STACK
APP FOR EXTRA CONTENT
stack.net.au/stack-app
Paul Dempsey
Strange Loop
Paul Dempsey makes music
for the head and the heart. His
cerebral songs seep into your
subconscious with melodies that
are beautifully intimate, and cryptic
lyrics that are filled with wonder
and intrigue. “Tell me, baby,”
he sings in the title track of his
second solo album, “what’s so
good about being understood?”
Twenty years after Something For
Kate’s first release, Dempsey is
still writing about how he sees the
world. “I keep pushing,” he states
in Lifetime Supply, “waiting for
something to push me back.” This
is intelligent pop, with a wry sense
of humour – check out the titles
Idiot Oracle, Hey History (Don’t Go
Changin’) and Nobody’s Trying To
Tell Me Something.
(EMI) Jeff Jenkins
visit MUSIC REVIEWS
18 JUNE 2016
MUSIC
he Temper Trap Thick As Thieves
The time is now or never,” Dougy Mandagi
eclares on The Temper Trap’s new album, “and if
e have to fall, we’ll fall together.” The third album
make or break; if you nail it, you’re gonna stick
round a long time. Some great Aussie bands, like
et and Motor Ace, didn’t survive that test third
album – of course, The Temper Trap were both
blessed and cursed by a remarkable debut. That nothing here matches
the magic of Sweet Disposition is no major criticism, not that the band
hasn’t tried, writing and recording in London, LA, Montreal, Byron Bay and
Melbourne. The Temper Trap sound is sensitive stadium rock. At its worst,
it’s hollow singalong choruses and songs such as Alive, which doesn’t
rise above the banality of the lyric: “It feels so good, so good to be alive.”
At its best, it’s both intimate and epic, though the record’s truly touching
moments – Summer’s Almost Gone, Tombstone and What If I’mWrong
– are buried at the backend of the album. “Nothing in the world can tear
us apart,” Mandagi repeats like a mantra in Lost. Here’s hoping, because
Thick As Thieves shows that The Temper Trap still have plenty to offer. The
fourth album could be the one. (Liberation) Jeff Jenkins
Baby Animals
Baby Animals, 25th
Anniversary Deluxe Edition
A theory: If Baby Animals had
switched the order of their first two
albums they would have conquered
the world. The adventurous second
album, Shaved and Dangerous,
would have established the band’s
musical credibility, and if it were
followed by the pop-rock genius
of their self-titled debut, nothing
would have stopped them. That
said, it’s hard to argue with a debut
album that sold 600,000 copies in
Australia, spawned four Top 50 hits
and spent six weeks at number
one. And the bonus live disc –
recorded at a club show in Boston
in 1992 – shows that Baby Animals
were a potent live act as well.
(Liberation) Jeff Jenkins
Classixx Faraway Reach
Don’t be fooled by the title –
there’s no flutey, harpy nonsense
in this album from Classixx.
Faraway Reach is as much
something you’d expect to catch
on Rage as on a disc spinning
during a Retrostar warehouse sale.
Part Capital Cities and part M83,
Classixx are a fresh electronic
duo and Faraway Reach is a
wonderful amalgamation of artists
you wouldn’t likely see together
anywhere else. In These Fine
Times transports you to little Asian
street markets, and the title track
takes a step back into foot-tapping
territory with a slightly trancey
upbeat. Classixx’ latest is a fitting
follow up to their 2013 Hanging
Gardens, and gives high hopes for
what’s to come.
(Future Classic) Alesha Kolbe
Gold Panda Good Luck And
Do Your Best
Gold Panda went to Japan and
all he got was this super luscious
new record. Good Luck and Do
Your Best, named after a common
Japanese phrase, bears all the
hope that it would imply: the
tension-building snap of drums on
Song For a Dead Friend evokes the
struggles against life’s difficulties,
while the luxurious chimes of
Halyards and warm synth stabs
on Chiba Nights bring out those
moments of triumph. Playing
samples of traditional Japanese
instruments and field recordings
against frantic electronic squeals,
Good Luck and Do Your Best
pays homage to the history from
which Gold Panda draws to build
a cohesive but wide-ranging third
record.
(Inertia) Jake Cleland
James Blake
The Colour In Anything
James Blake has pushed the
boat out into stranger, more
capricious, more beautiful
waters. Amongst sudden
crushes of synth, drifting chords
and tiny electronic secrets, the
pleasure of Blake’s voice is in
its deception; he will give you
a heart-burstingly sincere line
which trembles with emotion,
but suddenly you can’t tell which
of its accompanying vocal hoots
are reversed, subtly warped or
vocoded. The Bon Iver collab I
Need A Forest Fire is startling
in its beauty – these boys are
made for each other – and
confirms that both artists will
never throw handfuls of stuff at
you to try to keep your interest,
but know that the zeros are as
important as the ones.
(Universal) Zoë Radas
Jimmy Barnes
Soul Searchin'
Jimmy Barnes continues to
explore his musical roots with the
release of another outstanding
album of soul and R&B covers.
Recorded with an all-star band
of Nashville and Muscle Shoals
session musicians, many of
whom played on the original
recordings, Barnes isn't afraid
to tackle classics (James Carr's
The Dark End Of The Street, Don
Covay's Mercy, Mercy, Solomon
Burke's Cry To Me), while his deep
understanding of the genre allows
him to make lesser known songs
(Etta James' Worship The Ground
You Walk On, Laura Lee's It's How
You Make It Good) his own.
(Universal) Billy Pinnell