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20 MARCH 2017
Mick Thomas
These Are The Songs
“You remind me of someone I
knew long ago, someone that I
used to know…”
If you’ve lost touch with Mick
Thomas’ career post-Weddings
Parties Anything, this generous
compilation (23 songs, two CDs) is
a good place to get reacquainted.
There’s no doubting Thomas is a
fine chronicler of good times and
hard times, delivering drinking
songs and thinking songs. Can I
Sleep On Your Floor? is an anthem
for every indie muso, while the
sparkling cover of Rick Nelson’s
Garden Party expresses the ethos:
“If you can’t please everyone then
you got to please yourself.” Also
check out the companion book,
These Are The Days.
(Liberation) Jeff Jenkins
Real Estate In Mind
New Jersey’s Real Estate rolled
in with the tide of lush, layered
guitar music around the turn of
the decade, and since debuting
to critical acclaim, they’ve been
riding the top of the wave. In Mind
shows no signs of slipping: now
four albums in, Real Estate revel
in the eternal pleasure of deluxe
melodies, still primarily leaning
on the beguiling jangle of earlier
records but complicating things
for the better with jazzy drum
patterns and synths and the plastic
click of drum machines, sharing
less DNA with your dad’s Flying
Nun collection and more with his
Steely Dan records. Every morose
twenty-something has to grow up
some time; if this is the sound of
aging, Real Estate have nothing
to fear.
(Domino) Jake Cleland
Thundercat Drunk
Thundercat’s prodigious bass
playing appears on more critically
acclaimed records than you can
poke a Grammy at (Kendrick Lamar,
Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus), but
when it comes to his solo records,
it feels entirely effortless. Drunk
exhibits Thundercat’s typical
eccentricities: on some tracks
it’s astral lyricism reminiscent
of Ariel Pink (one song has
Thundercat repeating “It’s cool to
be a cat/ Meow meow meow”)
and others it's introspective love
jams calling back to pal Pharrell’s
work with N.E.R.D. What saves
it from unmitigated corniness is
his production chops, spanning
jazz fusion and R&B to New
Wavey synth jams. Striking a
perfect balance between cosmic
strangeness and grounded, diverse
arrangements, Drunk is a blinding
marriage of tradition and innovation.
(Inertia) Jake Cleland
Jeff Lang
Alone In Bad Company
Jeff Lang sings about a racehorse
on his new album. Like racing,
music is a tough business. You
need a lot of luck. Like Palmera
Lad, Lang has had a few wins
along the way, but not enough to
become a household name. Both
Tom Petty and Neil Young would
be proud of the eight-minute-20-
second Palmera Lad, and the rest
of the album – including a couple
of songs co-written by Don Walker
– is similarly impressive. Will it
top the charts? No. But Lang will
remain a punter’s favourite. He’s
not a big man, but he’s a giant
with his guitar, capable of creating
thrilling soundscapes. And like
Palmera Lad, Jeff Lang is a stayer.
(ABC/Universal) Jeff Jenkins
The Blackeyed Susans
Close Your Eyes And See
“I like a song to make sense,” Rob Snarski states in
his new book, You’re Not Rob Snarski. “I’m partial
to a beginning, middle and end. I’m old school.”
The Blackeyed Susans’ new studio album – their
first in 14 years – contains nine perfectly-formed
pieces of romantic pop. Nearly three decades after
they assembled in Perth, The Blackeyed Susans remain underappreciated,
perhaps because the velvet-voiced Snarski exhibits no rockstar ego. “I
don’t like the spotlight,” he confesses in album highlight I Don’t Dance
(Anymore), “I can’t stand the glare; the attention, the detail, are too much
to bear.” Fuelled by the songwriting smarts of co-conspirator Phil Kakulas,
Snarski delivers songs that are deliciously dark. “Close your eyes and
see,” he croons, “the darkness holds a light inside of me.” This is late
night music for lovers, music to drift off to sleep to, though it’s not clear
whether that sleep will be blissful or restless. “Are you the lover or the
loved?” Snarski ponders. “Are you the one who loves too much or not
enough?” This is an easy album to love. Dream on.
(Teardrop Records/MGM) Jeff Jenkins
Holly Throsby
After A Time
“I want to go where I’ve never
been,” Holly Throsby declares at
the start of her fifth solo album,
her first in six years. This multi-
talented artist is not afraid to do
different things, with After A Time
following her impressive debut
novel, Goodwood , as well as a
2010 children’s album. What Do
You Say?, a call-and-response
duet with Mark Kozelek, works a
treat, while Going To The Sea and
Find Your Way Home introduce a
band dynamic. But for the most
part this is a collection of intimate,
atmospheric pop, showcasing
Throsby’s delightfully dark vocal.
“You know I can’t stay long,” she
sings. Who knows what’s coming
next?
(Spunk) Jeff Jenkins
Syd Fin
Syd isn’t just going to steal your
girl, she’s going to whisper in
your ear every detail of how she’ll
do it first. This confident, fiercely
seductive, 38-minute debut is the
most complete female R'n'B album
that wasn’t made by a Knowles
sister. Syd has channelled the
groundbreaking women of '90s
R'n'B – Janet Jackson circa The
Velvet Rope, Aaliyah, any Destiny's
Child slow jam – and made them
fresh again. All About Me is an
instant classic, layered over a
skuzzy futuristic beat; Shake Em
Off dismisses haters and embraces
self-appreciation; No Complaints
is a not-so-subtle brag about fame
while Drown In It is a not-so-subtle
brag about her sexual conquests.
There’s a sense of freedom in Syd's
vocals as she eases between jazz,
funk, pop, and trap arrangements.
(Sony)Tim Lambert