Making music while Hay still shines
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Former Man at Work Colin Hay has remained hard at work on his solo career.
Source: News Corp Australia
THIS week’s album reviews from The Courier-Mail (ratings out of five stars):
ROCK
COLIN HAY
Next Year People (Compass/MGM)
****
COLIN Hay might have spent his first 14 years in Scotland and the last 25 in the US, but we still claim him as one of our own. And with good reason — not only did his Aussie band Men at Work crank out a string of hits in the ’80s, they were responsible for the unofficial national anthem (and official 1983 America’s Cup campaign theme) Down Under.
Hay has been a solo artist for nearly 30 years now, but the past five have been rough, with Down Under found by a court to have infringed classic bush ballad Kookaburra, followed by the suicide of former bandmate Greg Ham.
Hay could be excused for sounding world-weary on this, his 12th solo effort, but his voice — one of the most distinctive in rock — is undimmed by the decades. That’s not to say the music is as energetic as it once was: It’s more mellow, melancholy and introspective.
Nevertheless he’s keeping his chin up in the face of adversity. On the opening number Trying to Get to You he sings: “In this world of constant danger I still look for kindness in strangers.” It’s the first of several upbeat tunes that open the album strongly, mostly dealing with love, loss and the hope of redemption.
The title track is the most stark, a tale of Depression-era farmers ravaged by never-ending dust storms, wildfires and drought — God’s roaring drunk and out on the town — but eternally optimistic that things will get better, going through the motions year after year: We’re creatures of habit, don’t you know/One day we’ll reap what we sow.
Hay plays the electric sitar and harmonium to give a mystic feel to Scattered in the Sand, a sobering yet uplifting reflection of mortality: I watched you sleeping as you drifted away. Mr Grogan is the haunting tale of an ailing shopkeeper mourned by his labradoodle, while the album closes out with the instrumental Lament For Mr Whisky McManus.
While Hay is backed by a formidable array of artists, including his wife and vocalist, Cecilia Noel, this is a true solo project, as he’s not only composer and lead vocalist but producer and player of multiple instruments.
The album sees Hay collaborating with emerging Cuban artists San Miguel Perez and Yosmel Montejo, and nowhere is their contribution more evident than on Lived in Vain, which has a cruisy Caribbean feel.
And while the album is, in the main, fully plugged-in pop-rock, it’s not without its many acoustic moments, which Hay says is his natural state: “It’s the point I started from and may well be the point I end with. It’s always what I return to.”
John O’Brien
POP
THE REVERSALS
Squeeze (Footstomp)
****
THE Reversals live up to their name in slipping this one right by the listener. The Brisbane trio’s new single, Squeeze, is an emotional hand grenade wrapped in a pop song. Kicking into a fuzzed up-tempo riff, the song quickly gets to business. Clocking in at under 3½ minutes, it drives tight verses with a multitude of hooks drawing on electro-pop, indie rock and funk. That little vocal stutter reminiscent of The Who’s My Generation. Check. The synth and guitar vocal harmony like the Dandy Warhols. Check. Tying it together is the breezy put-down of singer Nathanael Hubbard laying his feelings bare to his significant other. Sample lyrics include: “Squeeze me out / cause all you want is money / freeze me now / cause I’m tired of running.” The song’s inspiration is the dynamic between the two main characters of the novel Gone Girl. It’s also a marked departure from the band’s more folk-rock leanings as a five piece, and it’s one they have the skill to carry off. This reinvention makes them a band to watch.
Bill Johnston
CLASSICAL
MARSHALL McGUIRE
Resonances: Music For Harp (ABC Classics)
****
MARSHALL McGuire’s serene harp strumming in this two-CD set is as soothing as a soft, tinkling fountain. It could have been otherwise. With 47 tracks in all, it could have induced a monotonous sameness. But McGuire brings sensitive insights to his art, using light and shade and textural variety to avoid traps of tedium. He changes pace from Fairest Isle, by Henry Purcell, to a J. S. Bach prelude, then leads into In a Landscape, a benign miniature from John Cage, America’s rebellious master of the famous four and a half minutes of silence “composition”. Peter Sculthorpe’s five quietly evocative Night Pieces, minimalist patterns of Arvo Part’s Pari intervallo continue the soporific mood until Jane Edwards’ clear soprano breaks the spell with Come Sleep (Peggy Glanville-Hicks) and Carl Vine’s Love Me Sweet. Many more gems from luminaries, such as Benjamin Britten, Handel, Marcel Tournier and Riley Lee on shakuhachi in an Anne Boyd piece, complete the tranquil balm this CD offers a disturbed world.
Patricia Kelly
POP
CHOOK RACE
About Time (Independent)
***1/2
CHOOK Race has put aside the surf guitar and embraced a more expansive sound. Opting for heart-on-sleeve for debut album About Time, the Melbourne trio draws on vintage jangly garage pop to drive its reminiscences of love, work and life. Playing to the band’s strengths, singer-guitarist Matt Liveriadis ably casts guitar lines, such as the choppy siren riff and guitar interplay of the tongue-in-cheek rocker Dentists and the mostly instrumental Clever, which is sweetened by drummer-vocalist Carolyn Hawkins’ voice. While her vocals aren’t the strongest on her solo numbers, the addition of her harmony on Always on Time and (Just Can’t) Relax, an early song, gives both a new dynamic. This is something the band should use more in future. Similarly, a slower pace works. A particular album standout is the bass-guitar-drum interplay of Figure It Out. So Good is also noteworthy for its change from a languid love song to a band jam. While the album’s tracks all come in under three minutes, it makes its time count. Definitely worth a listen.
Bill Johnston
ROOTS
LOU BRADLEY
Moonshine (Footstomp)
****
LOU Bradley has one of the most distinctive voices in Australian roots music, a quavering backwoods peal that brings to mind Dolly Parton, Iris DeMent and the Carter Family. As a writer, the Mullumbimby-based singer is earthy, homespun and generous, a mature-age mother of adult children who left home at
15, made money, lost it all, and knows that family and friends are what matter most. Her fourth album is a low-fi delight and was recorded with Bradley, her husband Phil Chaffer and producer Bill Chambers
harmonising and playing a collection of instruments. The collection is anchored by heartfelt tributes to Bradley’s late father (You Were Always There For Me) and her mother (Cheers Barbara).
But there is room for some foot-stomping bluegrass on the title track and wry humour with the chirpy Washed Up Hippy, which finds an archetypal Mullumbimby flower child swapping brown rice and pot for a Range Rover and
real estate after an unexpected inheritance. Bradley is a fixture on the Northern Rivers folkie scene. If you can’t make it up there, Moonshine will do for now
David Costello
HIP HOP
JOEY BADASS
B4. DA. SS (Cinematic/Pro Era)
****1/2
IT IS fitting that the latest sensation to come out of the birthplace of hip-hop is a rapper with a Carribbean background. Like his forbears, Joey Badass aka Jo-Vaughn Scott hails from Brooklyn, New York, where his parents settled after migrating from the West Indies. All grown up and with some serious tunes in hand, Joey has taken the hip-hop world by surprise with the release of his new album B4. DA. SS
. The album has the perfect blend of old and new styles of hip-hop and vocal techniques, which is simply irresistible and if you listen carefully you can hear references to Notorious B.I.G. and other classic samples. Unsurprising when you have the talents of one of the best DJ/producers in the industry, DJ Premier. B4. DA. SS has all the hallmarks of a great hip hop album. Standouts include the laid back
Piece of Mind, the harder edged Big Dusty, and the lazy keys and chilled beats of Hazeus View. Other tracks include the cocktail lounge vibe of Like Me, the upfront beats and old school sound of No. 9, while the classic 90s style drum ’n’ bass sound in Escape 120, gets the toe tapping.
Khan Tihema
BLUES
DEENA
Black Cat (Independent)
****
BREAKING new ground is the biggest challenge in a genre that’s been done to death. But Brisbane’s Deena takes hold of the blues like she’s born to it, smacks it in the face and brings it to life. The dark and moody plod of opening track Cupid will make you sit up and take notice like an arrow to the heart. Her powerful voice reels you in. Second single Black Cat is another hip grinder, a strut through the night. Slower tracks such as Curve and Cadence let you enjoy the comedown. Intriguing lyrics will also make you itch for a second listen. “I made you promise to leave me, here I am leaving you,” she sings over some intricate, melodic electric guitar on Curve. Deena, who was born in Japan to a Taiwanese mother and Irish father, grew up in Brisbane and is largely self-taught. Black Cat, which skates between blues, indie and rock, is a follow-up to her debut, Lone Wolf, where she began from a more folkie direction. With a team of talented musos behind her — and solid songwriting, she’s an artist you’ll want to get to know. She plays a couple of gigs live in Brisbane next month.
Sally Browne
