Kelly fans have themselves a Merri little Xmas

Australian icon Paul Kelly flanked by Vika (left) and Linda Bull.
Source: News Corp Australia

SOUL

PAUL KELLY, VIKI & LINDA BULL, CLAIRY BROWNE, DAN SULTAN, KIRA PURU

Merri Soul Sessions (Gawdaggie)

****

SO MUCH for resting up. After a couple of years of intense activity this was supposed to be a quieter year for Paul Kelly. That’s not his style though: he has continually re-energised his career through collaborations rich and varied in style, from folk to bluegrass to dub-reggae to his work as a producer, and not forgetting his tour with Neil Finn. This one happens to be one of the most productive of them.

Like most songwriters, Kelly finds some tunes feel like they would suit other singers better than himself. Back in the ’80s Sweet Guy was one of those, although he was eventually persuaded to record it himself and it has become a much-loved staple in the Kelly catalogue.

Moving on a quarter of the century, Vika Bull’s fiery rendition of the song when performing with Kelly and his band demanded that space be found in the schedule to record it. Naturally it would be a shame to get the band together to record one song and so began the Merri Soul Sessions, named for Merri Creek beside the Melbourne studio where the recording took place.

Clearly, sparks were flying in that two-week period, evidence of which has been appearing on limited-edition 45rpm releases as the year progresses. But there is something about hearing the Sessions complete that feels even greater than the sum of those excellent parts.

Of course, Sweet Guy takes pride of place here: from the opening 12-string guitar (Ash Naylor’s back on board for the electric guitar work) and vocal howl at the moon to the thunderous mix of drums, organ and piano and Bull’s killer vocal. It is already a classic in our heads and this version certainly equals the original, but the mark of quality here is that it doesn’t swamp everything else.

Opener Smells Like Rain, sung by Linda Bull, is slow and sensual, Cameron Bruce’s organ hovering ominously, evoking the tension of the stormy season.

At the other end of the recording, Hasn’t It Rained, sung by Paul, Vika and Linda, completes the cycle, this time as a sweet gospel-pop song that will no doubt have crowds on their feet as the band and singers tour these songs around the country.

Between those two songs are treats aplenty: Clairy Browne is as urgent and soulful as Amy Winehouse at her best on Keep On Coming Back For More; Sultan’s turn on Don’t Let A Good Thing Go has a ’60s-in-Memphis groove; Kira Puru nails the slow-burning Don’t Know What I’d Do, a song left off Kelly’s last studio album “because I couldn’t sing it myself yet’’.

Kelly steps up to take the lead on Righteous Woman (wild weather again: “building up pressure like a slow-moving storm’’) and Thank You, a ballad that will enter the canon among Kelly’s great love songs. If Browne hasn’t yet been marked in your notebook as the new Australian singer to watch, she will be after you hear her performance of Where Were You When I Needed You. If Dusty In Memphis is your idea of classic soul, check this song.

And all of Merri Soul Sessions, for that matter. It’s one of those records where you feel the spirit start to finish, nothing too fussed over, no one going through the motions. There’s desperation in the lyrics and a lot of joy in the delivery. And all the best soul music has those two essential ingredients.

Noel Mengel

ROCK

JERRY LEE LEWIS

Rock and Roll Time (Caroline/Vanguard)

***1/2

WITH Jerry Lee, you get the rock and the roll; you hear it in everything he plays and sings. And he’s back where he belongs, in Memphis (that’s him standing in front of Sun Studios, where it all began, on the cover), recording at the House of Blues. As with recent recordings there is plenty of star power, but they keep out of the way when he’s at the microphone and the playing is crisp and swinging rather than flashy. Producer Jim Keltner is on drums, late Neil Young bass man Rick Rosas plays on most tracks, and a fine time is had by all, including Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards on Chuck Berry’s Little Queenie and Neil Young and Ivan Neville on Jimmy Reed’s Bright Lights, Big City. Jerry Lee’s delivery is still perfect for country (see Keep Me in Mind), while Robbie Robertson joins in on guitar for a superb take on Folsom Prison Blues and a rollicking Promised Land closes proceedings. Something about Jerry Lee’s music always sounded like 10 o’clock on a Saturday night. Still does.

Noel Mengel

METAL

MACHINE HEAD

Bloodstone & Diamonds (Nuclear Blast)

***1/2

MACHINE Head are one of those rare quantities that manage to combine the heaviest of metal with high concept and still make it accessible to the casual listener. And their eighth album Bloodstone & Diamonds has recurring themes of death and redemption, both on a personal and species level. In Comes the Flood rages against false idols and the pursuit of material gain: “I wanna burn down Wall Street, baby … wake up America.” The first half of Sail Into the Black is quiet, moody and chilling before war-drum percussion ushers in the uncompromising metal. Machine Head have their Faith No More moments, such as Killer & Kings and Beneath the Silt. And the penultimate Imaginal Cells features a monologue addressing threats to human existence, from peak oil to overpopulation and climate change: “Stay out of the way of the dinosaurs as they crash and allow us to take over this planet and bring in the new ideas (to) encourage our survival as a civilisation.” Yes, Bloodstone & Diamonds plantsideas in your head while you bang it.

John O’Brien

I’m In Your Mind Fuzz by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

ROCK

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD

I’m in Your Mind Fuzz (Remote Control)

***

THESE Australian psych-trippers can be hard to keep up with, what with the tongue-twisting name and the (vinyl) sidelong exploration through a bunch of connected tunes that opens this album. Those four tunes rattle along on a Motorik rhythm and vibe that flits between blissed out and manic. No doubt it’s a live show-stopper but things get more musically diverse thereafter with the flute freak-out of Hot Water, while Satan Speeds Up comes over like some long-lost gem from the vaults of psychedelia, ‘60s division. It features a woozy mix of guitars swimming in wah-wah pedal and reverb effects, the results not unlike early Mothers of Invention, no doubt essential listening for this crew. Oh, and Am I In Heaven starts off in pastoral mood but be warned, King Gizzard soon set the controls for the heart of the sun. As with previous releases, the sonic quality could be a problem for some: to these ears it sounds digital and clean rather than analog and warm, but fans of White Fence and Tame Impala will appreciate the good-humoured strangeness.

Noel Mengel

POP

BRYAN FERRY

Avonmore (BMG)

***1/2

ON HIS first two solo albums, These Foolish Things and Another Time, Another Place, the Roxy Music frontman presented stylish cover versions of pop classics, rendered in his own idiosyncratic style. He closes this latest solo album with electro-pop treatments of Stephen Sondheim (Send in the Clowns) and Robert Palmer (Johnny and Mary). These work because the melodies are so distinguished and Ferry’s delivery still so distinctive. But the best track here is Soldier of Fortune, co-written with Johnny Marr, and it’s so good you rather wish they would have kept at it. Elsewhere, the accent is toward a smooth, danceable groove (other guests include Nile Rogers and Miles Davis bassist Marcus Miller). While 2010s Olympia was close to a Roxy reunion in personnel if not sound, the disparate cast here help create a unified aesthetic, from the bubbling funk of the title tune to the Avalon-esque tones of One Night Stand and Midnight Train. The heart still aches but a shake of the hips can still do a power of good seems to be the moral of the story. And Avonmore finds the old warrior sounding as lithe and chipper as the young Ferry pictured on the cover.

Noel Mengel

SOUL

RADICAL SON

Cause’n Affect (Wantok)

***1/2

DAVID Leha, the artist known as Radical Son, has known years of struggle and pain, jail and addiction. But the son of Aboriginal and Tongan parents found a new path when discovered by Steve Balbi of Noiseworks at a Syndey songwriting workshop 14 years ago. This is his first full-length album and his warm, sweet tenor sits well with modern soul practitioners such as Aloe Blacc and John Legend. The album starts with a traditional Aboriginal song featuring clapsticks but soon finds its R & B groove from the reggae-soul of Human Behaviour to the hip-hop techniques of Do the Right Thing with its acknowledgment “Hope never left us/It was waiting inside.’’ One Dream is a ’60s-style ballad and Archie Roach drops by for a reading of a Leha poem with the message that change for the better is possible, no matter how far you have fallen. It is followed by the easy R & B sound of Talk to Me, with brass section, jazzy trumpet and a superb vocal performance from Radical Son, with just the right balance of hopefulness and grit.

Noel Mengel

CLASSICAL

RENEE FLEMING

Christmas in New York (Decca)

***1/2

SOPRANO Renée Fleming stays close to her American roots for her Christmas selection. Casting her voice midway between a pop mode and the operatic style for which she is best known, she embraces songs such as Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas with Gregory Porter, Silver Bells duo with Kelli O`Hara, Winter Wonderland, Central Park Serenade, for which American artists distilled their own idiom from a European heritage. Not many classical singers can scale down their wider operatic range to suit the intimate dimensions of songs such as Merry Christmas Darling, Snowbound, Who Knows Where The Time Goes with Brad Mehldau or Winter Wonderland. Fleming does it with ease, supported by nifty arrangements forming a comfortable setting for her soft-textured vocal tones. Yet when she turns serious in In the Bleak Midwinter with Rufus Wainwright or Still, Still, Still, Fleming can reach with an innate measure to the extended range and emotional nuance of these exquisite traditional carols.

Patricia Kelly

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