Second time twice as nice for Lanie Lane?

ROCK

LANIE LANE

Night Shade (Ivy League)

****1/2

LANIE Lane’s debut album, 2011’s To the Horses, was really good. Night Shade steps it up a little. It’s great.

The more I swim in these cool, clean waters, the closer I listen, the better it gets.

That first album took a fresh look at some familiar elements, from bluesy rock to rockabilly. But there was something else too in some of the tracks, a hazy kind of feeling that was neither old nor new, a little bit Twin Peaks.

Night Shade goes firmly down that road and no one is going to call Lane retro any more. She’s got her own thing now.

First, there’s that voice — warm, rich, sensual. No wonder Jack White was attracted to it and asked her to record at his studio (none of the results appear here).

First track Salute, all luscious six minutes of it, is a statement of intent. In an age where commercial concerns demand hooks up front and a vocal line that arrives in the first 15 seconds, it goes the other way. This is going to be some ride so you had better be ready for anything.

It slowly curls out like a wave on the point, rolling surf-drum tom toms, guitars that build and swirl around each other, crying slide, an of-the-earth rumble down in the bass register. As I listen I just want to get out of town, to solitude, alone with salt and sand.

I See You picks up the tempo slightly, guitars continuing their mystery dance around each other, Lane cooing: “Whatever does shake your heart, the clue/Wherever the thunder rolls, in you.’’

It’s ethereal and funky, and when was the last time you read those two words in the one sentence?

Celeste picks up the pace a little more, a little more pop, questioning backing vocals hooting like an owl. Make that ethereal and funky and sexy.

La Loba opens with rippling electric guitar; Lane’s voice soars above the guitar reverb, something delicious about the way she plays with the phrasing.

And then comes The Phantom/You Show Me How I Should Like It, two connected tracks that provide an emotional high point that blows the lid on this bubbling brew, long flowing melodies, jazz-like without being jazz, baritone sax blowing through, electric piano finding the pulse, glorious female backing vocals lifting the temperature.

Like I said, it’s quite a trip, concluding with the 10-minute reverie of Mother.

Some people make pop music, easily consumed, easily forgotten. Some people make art. You can make your choice. Lanie Lane has.

Lanie Lane plays The Hi-Fi, Fortitude Valley, on November 15

Noel Mengel

REISSUE

THE SPORTS

Reckless (Warner)

****1/2

THE Sports’ 1978 debut album captures the original band’s spicy mix of R & B, rockabilly and bluesy rock ’n’ roll, with the old-timey rock ’n’ roll spirit of piano player Jim Niven, the nimble guitars of Andrew Pendlebury and Ed Bates and the distinctive vocals of Stephen Cummings. With their influences and musicianship, they were like an Australian version of Graham Parker and the Rumour (with whom they would tour in 1979), a great pub rock band pitched to a new wave audience. The album, produced by Joe Camilleri, still sparkles with humour, hooks and the songwriting partnership of Cummings and Bates, soon brought to a rude conclusion when he was ousted from the band. Highlights on the album include the title tune and the Melbourne tale of Boys! (What Did the Detective Say), but it’s all gold. The clincher here is the vast selection of bonus material including the band’s 1977 EP and rare tracks recorded for TV and radio including versions of The Easybeats’ Wedding Ring and Parker’s White Honey.

Noel Mengel

POP

TAYLOR SWIFT

1989 (Universal)

**1/2

TAYLOR Swift has ranked above the pack in the commercial mainstream through her considerable warmth and charisma. The country music roots helped too, but it’s goodbye to all that with the distinctly urban 1989, which dispenses with country elements entirely. She’s working with pop co-writers (OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder and Imogen Heap among them) and pop producers (Max Martin) for half the album’s tracks. It’s mostly glacial synthesisers, thundering drum machines and loads of effects on the vocals. The result is another gleaming modern pop record, crafted to push every button and sell, sell, sell. It’s music you can dance to, in front of the mirror in the bedroom, at the school disco, complete with rhymes like “problems’’ and “solve ‘em’’. Big dreams, big beats, big hooks, big bucks. Taylor does it with more class than most and keeps her clothes on in the process. No trailer trash talking here. But I miss country Taylor.

Noel Mengel

CLASSICAL

VOCES8

Eventide (Decca)

****

POETRY and music are equal partners in this CD from British ensemble Voces8, eight singers who blend vocal textures with ambient sounds to create ethereal contemporary choral forms that honour classical traditions. Eventide is perfect for this time. Its Hymn to the Fallen is composer John Williams’ haunting setting of war poet John McCrae’s Eventide for the film Saving Private Ryan, timely as we approach another November 11 commemoration of the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month’’ moment that ended World War I slaughter. Perfect also as we near Christmas. Benjamin Britten’s Corpus Christi Carol leads the way, along with Benedictus (Karl Jenkins) and Ave Maria by German composer Franz Biebl. Kate Rusby’s Underneath the Stars and Steal Away are other gems on this disc that opens and ends with a plainsong-inspired chant Te lucis ante terminum — Before the ending of the Day (Thomas Tallis) with cello obbligato by Matthew Sharp.

Patricia Kelly

ROOTS

C.W. STONEKING

Gon’ Boogaloo (Caroline)

**

THE trouble with novelty acts is eventually the novelty wears off. And when you leave a six-year gap between albums, everything new is old again. Australian primitivist C.W. Stoneking’s shtick was old to begin with: vaudeville, voodoo, jungle jive, hokum, gutbucket, gospel and blues repackaged for hipsters who never heard it the first time round, and recorded in perversely spartan conditions to enhance its “authenticity”. Since 2008’s Jungle Blues, its novelty value enhanced by then backing band the Primitive Horn Orchestra, Stoneking has forsaken his banjo and National steel guitar for a barely in-tune Fender electric. Apart from that, stand-up bass, rudimentary drums and percussion and a quartet of female backing singers share a single microphone. The only other mic used in the two-day session is for Stoneking’s vocals, an oddly engaging mix of talking blues and strangulated shout. He’s still banging on about the jungle, desert islands and zombies, the aural equivalent of reading an old Phantom comic in fading light. Not so much lo-fi as no-fi, it no doubt works far better in a well-lubricated live setting than it does here on cold, hard disc.

Phil Stafford

Throw Me in the River by The Smith Street Band

ROCK

THE SMITH STREET BAND

Throw Me in the River (Poison City)

****

WITH last year’s Don’t F— With Our Dreams EP and frontman/ guitarist Wil Wagner’s acclaimed solo outing Laika hitting shelves since the release of 2012 album Sunshine and Technology, fans of this Melbourne quartet have had plenty to whet their appetites and the good news is Throw Me in the River has been worth the wait. As always, Wagner’s everyman charm and prose-like lyrics provide the backbone for the folk-punk accompaniment of guitarist Lee Hartney and road-hardened rhythm section of James Fitzgerald and Chris Cowburn. The album opens with the plaintive Something I Can Hold in My Hands, which becomes an affirmation of hope by song’s end and blends seamlessly into Surrender. The riff that underpins Surrey Dive makes it one of the most resonant tracks, while the wistful Calgary Girls provides one of the most reflective moments. Other highlights include I Don’t Want to Die Anymore, the titular track and the anthemic closer, I Love Life. Throw Me in the River is the culmination of tireless touring and evidence of Wagner’s innate ability to craft meaningful pop songs out of everyday feelings.

Daniel Johnson

POP-ROCK

TRAIN

Bulletproof Picasso (Columbia/Sony)

***

“LOVE, I guess … is there anything else?” He might not quite be a Lennon or McCartney, but Train’s Pat Monahan is nevertheless an able lyricist as he demonstrates time and again on the band’s seventh album. In the existentialist title track he ponders: “Am I made of paper, cos I tear so easily/Am I made of vapour, because I disappear.” Music-wise, Train are commercial rock in the same vein as Matchbox Twenty, and Bulletproof Picasso finds them sounding poppier than ever. They might have veered too much into pop territory for some fans: Wonder What You’re Doing For the Rest of Your Life (with guest vocalist Marsha Ambrosius) wouldn’t be out of place on a classic Prince album. There’s the spaghetti-western-style Angel in Blue Jeans, and Monahan’s falsetto gets a workout in Give It All. A plodding tempo and soaring harmonies give I Will Remember an anthemic quality and it’s sure to get mobile phones swaying on Train’s next tour. The Bridge is powered by a funky groove, and Baby, Happy Birthday is an olive branch from a typically forgetful male.

John O’Brien

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