Artist: Bernard Fanning
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Title: D??epartures (Universal)
Genre: Rock
Rating: ★★★★
In short: Groovy
DEPARTURES is an apt title for Bernard Fanning’s second CD.
Obviously there was the departure from Powderfinger, but there have been more personal ones for Fanning — his brother John died of cancer in 2002, his dad in 2011.
And musically, this is quite the departure from Fanning’s first solo effort, Tea & Sympathy.
Gone is the folky, barefoot former ‘Finger frontman — grooves and funk in their place.
Don’t let the lead single, Battleships, the CD’s most Powderfinger moment, fool you.
Opener Tell Me How It Ends is pure swagger while Limbo Stick and Zero Sum Game are darker but no less rhythm-driven.
Grow Around You is a tender moment, written for his wife while she was in hospital. So, too, is the nostalgic title track, subtitled Blue Toowong Skies — after the Brisbane suburb the Fanning family were raised.
Artist: Various
Title: R??unning Trax Winter 2013 (Universal)
Genre: Dance
Rating: ★★★½
In short: Sweaty
I actually road — I mean treadmill — tested this release.
With the boom in everything fitness related over the past few years, it seems a natural move for Ministry Of Sound to bolt from the clubs into the gyms.
Music goes hand-in-hand with exercise and dance music is many folks’ weapon of choice.
The winter 2013 instalment of the Running Trax series features three discs labeled Walk, Jog and, of course, Run.
Getting us warmed up on disc 1 is Rudimental’s Not Giving In before hits from Avicii, The Potbelleez, Bingo Players and even a classic from Fatboy Slim start working the sweat glands.
The energy lifts on disc 2 with Tiesto’s remix of Youngblood Hawk’s smash We Come Running a highlight as are efforts from Sam La More, The Aston Shuffle and Rita Ora.
Disc 3 is overdrive from the get-go with Sam & The Womp’s Bom Bom and Timmy Trumpet’s Snapback among the standouts.
Artist: Harry Connick Jr
Title: ???Every Man Should Know (Sony)
Genre: Jazz/pop
Rating: ★★★½
In short: Stylish
WELL before there was Michael Buble, there was the superb Harry Connick Jr.
In fact, Buble was just two when Connick Jr featured on his first album, Dixieland Plus, at 10-years-old.
The 45-year-old is also an accomplished actor and has forayed into funk and other genres (including this year’s Smokey Mary CD) but the wealth of his talent still lies in pop-fused jazz.
Every Man Should Know is HCJ’s 30th album and fans are likely to revel in its honesty, both lyrically and musically.
The title track is HCJ at his sauntering best. Girls will swoon, for sure, to this live.
A deep classic vibe features on the early standout One Fine Thing, I Love Her boasts an unmissable summery Cuban lean and the lovely Greatest Love Story takes an unlikely country turn and sees Connick Jr in fine storytelling form.
And the delicate Time To Go is an apt closer.
Artist: Dialectrix
Title: The Cold Light Of Day (Obese)
Genre: Hip-hop
Rating: ★★★★
In short: Superb
THERE may be more famous rappers in Australia. Some might even have a more proficient flow.
But there are few that have the way with words that Sydney’s Dialectrix has.
His press release calls him a vernacular acrobat. Nice.
On his third solo CD (he also has records with DUB Crew and the supergroup Gully Platoon), Dialectrix, aka, Ryan Leaf, proves again why he’s one of our most exciting talents.
Intelligently teaming with Plutonic Lab again (feel the live percussion that paces the strong opener Shadow In The Light), Leaf’s delivery is smooth to the ear, especially on the vibey highlight My World and New Generation, with its brassy backbone and old-school mentality.
Go is a pacy, bassy effort that showcases another side of the Plutonic/Dialectrix combo.
All killer, no filler here, but check the smooth Get Flight and the super-real Fire In The Blood.
Artist: Alice In Chains
Title: The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (EMI)
Genre: Rock
Rating: ★★★½
In short: Sludgey
ALICE in Chains are survivors.
The 1980s Seattle grungers have been rocked by the deaths of two founding members — vocalist Layne Staley and bassist Mike Starr.
The band, with an adjusted line-up that still included original members Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kenney, resurfaced in 2009 after a hiatus of 14 years.
Now, we receive Alice In Chain’s fifth album.
The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is classic-sounding Alice in Chains but it’s certainly a 2013 edition.
You feel at times for William DuVall, Staley’s replacement, but he manages to encapsulate the spirit of his predecessor well on the likes of the title track and the grubby opener Hollow.
The band’s moody trademark is also in tact with the rhythmic Stone and poignant Voices among the early highlights.
Pretty Done swaggers thanks to a Kenney backbone and the acoustic Scalpel is an easy fave.
Artist: Sammy Mac Band
Title: ???The Headstone
Genre: Rockin’ country
Rating: ★★★½
In short: Fun
Review: Peter Batson
BRIGHT’S Sammy Mac Band is dedicated to celebrating the good times, and it shows in their rollicking debut EP.
The Headstone is a fun CD crisply recorded at Wandiligong muso Rudi Katterl’s Mountain Music Studios.
With its appealing rock-country vibe and led by Sam McIntosh, who wrote all six of the EP’s songs, the band displays its versatility in songs ranging from the tongue-in-cheek She Only Loves Me When She’s Drunk to the easy-on-the ear ballad In My Dreams.
Title song The Headstone is about a 37-year-old goldminer who drops dead leaving a wife and seven children.
It’s a moving tale that echoes the rich mining heritage of North East towns such as Bright and Wandiligong.
Artist: Beady Eye
Title: ???BE (Sony)
Genre: Rock
Rating: ★★★
In short: Throwback
THE second album from Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye sounds just about how you’d expect it to.
Like Oasis.
To be fair, it’s hard to disassociate Gallagher’s distinctive vocal style with his fiery former band (brother Noel now fronts Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds).
Musically as well, Beady Eye deliver moody, sometime psychadelic Brit-rock.
Liam would hate the Oasis comparisons too, but it was he who created the beast.
Beady Eye is a nice substitute.
Opener Flick Of The Finger is comfortably familiar — retro and a little trippy — while the rocker Face The Crowd has its roots in the 60s but looms as a live favourite for Liam and the gang.
Soon Come Tomorrow is a patented Liam Gallagher ballad and I’m Just Saying is throwback Oasis which would place easily on the Morning Glory CD.
Artist: The Dunwells
Title: ???Follow The Road (Universal)
Genre: Folk/rock
Rating: ★★★½
In short: Organic
YOU read the words folk/rock, realise The Dunwells are British, and lazily think they must be another act ready to ride the coat-tails of Mumford And Sons.
So very wrong — there’s a lot less obvious banjo for a start.
The Dunwells, featuring brothers Joe and David Dunwell, deliver an organic, less manic style of folk/pop/rock and there’s some really gorgeous moments on Follow The Road, seemingly a renamed, repacked version of their overseas release Blind Sighted Faith.
Those come in the form of Goodnight My City, Saving Grace and especially Oh Lord, among others, which show the band’s gentle musicianship and emotive harmonies.
There’s a definite country lean too with the suave title-track opener a perfect introduction to The Dunwells.
Further highlights include Elizabeth and I Could Be King.