STACK #254 December 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

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V L There’s nothing quite like taking home some fresh vinyl and putting it on the turntable for the first time. It’s a total experience. Each month we highlight a reissue, JB-exclusive, or just straight-up classic long-player to add to any burgeoning collection. Words: Paul Jones THE CRUEL SEA THREE LEGGED DOG (1995) 30 TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION COLOURED VINYL I N Y L V I T A

T he mid ’90s were a sonic of musical creativity, The Cruel Sea released an album bristling with 15 slices of swaggering Aussie rock. utopia for Australian rock and roll. Amidst the prolific fount

This Is What It Is , it’s all atmosphere. Right across the album, guitars growl, then shimmer, slink, with a low end that is so deep and powerful it would rattle King Kong’s ribcage. Singer Tex Perkins delivers one of his most magnetic performances here. His voice is part threat, part confession, delivered with an assured calmness. He doesn’t

rapid ostinato bassline? Thirty years on, the potency remains, undiminished by the passing years. The

album endures through its discipline – the temptation to fill every space is resisted. An easy confidence runs through the songwriting – this is a band in complete control, uninterested in flaunting its ability. Three Legged Dog is a record built on feel rather than flash, and that feel remains intoxicating.

SINGER TEX PERKINS DELIVERS ONE OF HIS MOST MAGNETIC PERFORMANCES HERE. HIS VOICE IS PART THREAT, PART CONFESSION...

force emotion, instead letting it seep through the duckboards. Whether he’s crooning or leaning into the trademark baritone, on Three Legged Dog , Perkins understands his power.

There were popular singles: who can forget the electrifying slide on Better Get a Lawyer Son , the lead single from the record, the bowstring-tight percussion on Anybody Like You or Just a Man ’s

Get this, it’s the first time the iconic Aussie classic has been made available on vinyl! The two-disc 30th Anniversary Edition is presented in a striking gatefold sleeve and pressed on 180 gram Transparent Green coloured vinyl. The original 15 tracks are housed across the first three sides, while the fourth side features a whopping six B-side tracks from around the same time as the album launch in 1995. SO, WHAT’S THE 30 TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION ALL ABOUT?

The band’s fourth long player arrived just when the death throes of grunge had surrendered to the foppish fringes of Britpop. None of this altered the course of the Sydney band, which had swapped the more commercial hooks on their previous long-player, The Honeymoon Is Over , for deep, bluesy-inspired grooves. From the instrumental opener,

SO FRESH - BEST OF 2025 Various Artists

So Fresh - Best of 2025 features megahits from megastars: Alex Warren, Justin Bieber, Ravyn Lenae, Olivia Dean, Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McCrae, Gracie Abrams, The Kid LAROI and many more! Proudly boasting the biggest names in the pop world – all on one CD, with lyrics included. Out now.

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