STACK #133 Nov 2016

MUSIC

REVIEWS

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Five By The Famous Five (Or Four) Given the big Mac family tree has many branches and short blooming buds (the BobWelch years), it's hard to whittle their vast catalogue down to essentials… but here goes. By Graham Reid FLEETWOOD MAC

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Paper Mache Dream Balloon Prolifsters KG&TLW turn yet another sharp right- angle with album #7 and decide to unplug a bunch of their gear. The Melb lads launch immediately into the clarinet-led Sense – any well-heeled hipster joint near a beach will be blaring the b’Jesus out of this come summer, trust me. Happy powerpop a la

Then Play On (1969) The third album as a British blues band, the last with legendary guitarist Peter Green and the first with guitarist Danny Kirwan (they played together on the instrumental hit Albatross ); here they were stretching

beyond blues covers ( Closing My Eyes ), and the version to get is the 2013 remastered and expanded edition (with Oh Well , The Green Manalishi and World In Harmony ). It's Mac, Jim. But not as you know it. Heroes Are Hard To Find (1974)

Dandy-Warhols-for-toddlers fires through on the infectious Bone , while the fluty Dirt blends somewhere between the two. Trapdoor offers the signature urgency-and-stutter repetition from earlier material we all know and love. Still, the concentration on natural instruments pays dividends to the band’s obvious talent and super-honed skill at being just that – a real band. One could hope that based on the aesthetics used in PR for this album, the old-school cover and just the right amount of strategic genius from Remote Control (are you listening?), the band could have a limited and extremely lucrative run on the live kids' circuit over the holidays. Seriously, they would go off and the little buggers would lap it up! Add this to their earlier release Quarters getting a Best Jazz Album nom for the ARIAs (it’s true – WTF!?) expect an entirely new and understandably confused audience soon to be welcomed into the Gizzard fan- throng… it was all just a matter of time. (Flightless/Remote Control) Chris Murray

Californian guitarist Bob Welch was an important five year-conduit between the band’s British blues to American pop-rock sound (although wasn't acknowledged when they were inducted into The

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1998). He convinced them to come to the US, and introduced them to Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. For this album, Mac were a four-piece: Welch was peaking as writer/player, and Christine McVie stepped up with great songs. A much ignored cornerstone in their catalogue. Fleetwood Mac (1975)

We presume you have the follow-up Rumours (50 million sold) but this was where global success started. Welch left and in came Buckingham and Nicks, so with Christine McVie the group now

had three excellent writers, two female vocalists, and, in singer Buckingham, an innovative guitarist-writer. It sprung Rhiannon , Landslide and Say You Love Me (among others). The start of the most successful phase of their long career. Tusk (1979)

After you've sold 50 million of Rumours you get to make an adventurous, different, sometimes edgy and extremely expansive double album. Helmed by Buckingham who had his ear on New Wave

Various Artists 100 Greatest Australian Singles Of The '60s If you want to find out what

You Am I Porridge And Hot Sauce (Inertia)

and punk, Tusk – which took over 18 months to record and cost about US$1 million, the most expensive album ever produced at that point – hatched hits (notably Nicks' sublime Sara ), but mostly pushed back the slick and successful sound in favour of a leaner Mac attack. Stands up well. Tango In The Night (1987) Back in hit-making mode, this second biggest seller of their career ( Little Lies, Big Love and others were chart singles) is to date the last by the classic re- formed line-up now touring. As enjoyable as Fleetwood Mac and Rumours (which were two sides of the same coin). And: So many albums, so many phases to consider. Cheaters will go for the cheap but comprehensive four CD box set 25 Years; The Chain . The double disc The Essential Fleetwood Mac (2007) usefully compiles their early blues incarnation in Britain ( Black Magic Woman , Albatross , Need Your Love So Bad ).

Five years since their last album, and You Am I (26-years-young) aren’t afraid to bolt from the gate as though they’ve only just started. Opener Good Advices is distinctly harder, thicker and more aggressive than expected, designed to clutch your attention; Bon Vivants grooves between Rogers’ melodic see-saw and a Stonesesque swagger. That morphs into mid-American beer barn territory on Two Hands , and a lick of the classic Springsteen/ Rogers fable from the pulpit on One Drink At A Time . A varied album with much to like (Davy Lane's vocals on Out to the Never, Now are amazing); this a great ‘ol band who still confidently create ‘new’. ( Inertia) Chris Murray

Australian music sounded like in the ’60s, this four-CD collection is essential. In fact, it’s the year’s most generous compilation. A companion for David N. Pepperell and Colin Talbot’s book, it features 100 songs, presented in alphabetical order. From pioneers such as Johnny O’Keefe and Normie Rowe, to legendary bands – The Easybeats, The Masters Apprentices and The Seekers – to beginnings for the Bee Gees, Johnny Farnham, Ross Wilson (The Pink Finks), Glenn Shorrock (The Twilights), Bon Scott (The Valentines) and Russell Morris (Somebody’s Image). From Axiom to Zoot, it’s all here. ( Warner) Michael Dwyer

For more from Graham Reid visit www.elsewhere.co.nz

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