Artist: Neoncity
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Title: L??lighthill (neoncity.com.au)
Genre: Rock/pop
Rating: ★★★★
In short: Bright
LIAM Dalby once auditioned for Australian Idol.
I’m sure he’s not that unhappy it didn’t work out.
That’s because the seasoned Border singer’s band Neoncity is on the verge of big things.
The five-piece’s debut CD Lighthill is a lesson in patience.
They’ve taken their time and delivered an incredibly polished and professional record filled with the sorts of songs that are impossible to dislike.
Led by the uplifting single The Moments, Lighthill is strong from track one to 12, as the band deliver the sort of friendly rock that radio plays all day long and concert-goers love.
Opener This Life is a prime example (one of several) while the piano ballad Forever wears a throwback sound on its (denim-clad) sleeve as it builds to an impressive rocking crescendo.
And the standout pop duo Good Times and Motivation boast powerful playing and some truly ripper singalong choruses.
Artist: Pistol Annies
Title: A?nnie Up (Sony)
Genre: Country rock
Rating: ★★★
In short: Fired up
IT’S country music with a load of dirty washing thrown in.
Meet the Pistol Annies.
A country music ‘supergroup’ featuring US chart stars Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, Pistol Annies ride from whip-cracking outlaw rock to legit blues and pained and patented slide-guitar balladry.
The opener I Feel A Sin Comin’ On is a stripped back affair showcasing the girls’ spot-on harmonies over little more than a finger-snap before exploding into a powerful rocker. Similarly, Hush Hush is a attitude-filled rampage.
The subject matter can be dark — divorce, addiction — but the mood stays bright, especially on tongue-in-cheek tunes like the bluesy Unhappily Married or Don’t Talk About Him, Tina.
Elsewhere, the haunting Dear Sobriety is a highlight as is the rollicking Loved By A Workin’ Man.
Artist: Various
Title: ???The Great Gatsby (Universal)
Genre: Soundtrack
Rating: ★★★½
In short: Cool
COMBINE Aussie film guru Baz Luhrmann with rap mogul Jay-Z and it’s gonna be edgy.
And that’s exactly what the soundtrack to Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby is.
Jay serves as excecutive producer on the CD and has pieced together a vast array of the music “in crowd”.
And, erm, Will.I.Am.
Combining the feel of the 1920s when F. Scott Fitzgerald based TGG with modern styles of hip-hop, dub-step and indie rock can’t have been easy but it seems to work here.
Jay-Z opens with the dialogue-sampling $100 Bill while wife Beyonce teams with Andre 3000 on a buzzy remake of Amy Winehouse’s Black To Black.
Beyonce’s own Crazy In Love is given a ragtime remix with Emeli Sande on vox, Jack Black is haunting on U2’s Love Is Blindness and Gotye, Lana Del Rey and Sia all provide highlights.
Artist: John Fogerty
Title: W?rote A Song For Everyone (Sony)
Genre: Rock
Rating: ★★★½
In short: Revived
HE did write a song for everyone, it seems.
As the frontman of popular late-1960s, early-1970s rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty had a hand in plenty of timeless tunes, many you’ll still hear while out on any given weekend.
Wrote A Song For Everyone sees Fogerty re-record many of his classics with some of today’s biggest stars.
The CD gets off to an amazing start, a blistering version of Fortunate Son recorded with the Foo Fighters. There’s an Aussie flavour here too as Keith Urban adds some country vibe to 1975’s Almost Saturday Night.
The Zac Brown Band, fresh from a recent gig in Deni, creates a fresh, rollicking take on Bad Moon Rising while fellow rock veteran Bob Seger teams wonderfully with Fogerty on Who’ll Stop The Rain.
And Proud Mary, featuring Jennifer Hudson and Allen Toussaint, is the CD’s pick.
Artist: The Neighbourhood
Title: I Love You (Sony)
Genre: Rock
Rating: ★★★
In short: Hip
THEY’RE somewhat of an enigma, The Neighbourhood.
They first appeared last year sans any background or even line-up info but with a musical style too intriguing to ignore.
Since then, the five-piece has come clean, but not totally.
The music is more important than a lot of the details, it seems.
After a couple of EPs, I Love You is the band’s first album.
Based on a sound they’ve already delivered — a downcast rock dynamic punctuated with a hip-hop backbone — I Love You immediately gives a dark vibe while remaining inherently interesting.
Frontman Jesse Rutherford could pass vocally as male or female, such is the delivery on early tunes like How and Everybody’s Watching.
Ditto for Sweater Weather, one of the CD’s best while W.D.Y.W.F.M is the set’s first real highly accessable moment.
Elsewhere, Female Robbery and Let It Go sound the goods.
Artist: 44th Sunset
Title: ???Boa Constrictor Hat EP (Sony)
Genre: Rock
Rating: ★★★½
In short: Teen Spirit
THEY’RE still in their teens, hail from Perth and their bio calls their lead singer a ‘wanker’.
Introducing your next favourite Aussie band.
And in true indie-pop fashion, 44th Sunset’s first release is an eclectic EP of tunes that truly belie the ages of members Nik Thompson, Jack Hall, Michael Blakeman, Joe Snelgrove and Jess Clancy.
Thompson’s vocals, particularly on the epic and moody ballad Cages, are simply head-turning.
The EP’s opener — Choke — begins with the duelling riffs of Thompson and Hall before developing into a mid-tempo pop-rock triumph.
Caeser is the most obvious single here, a lively indie-pop ripper with a manic piano underlay and the sort of chant chorus that will lock inside your head for days.
EP closer While The Boys is a hypnotic effort punctuated by a big ending and Blue Ribbon is funky and a bunch of fun.