STACK #203 Sep 2021

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Gretta Ray Begin To Look Around

The Black Sorrows Saint Georges Road

FEATURE ARTIST

Twenty years ago, Missy Higgins was Unearthed by Triple J. Fearing that record companies would turn her into the next Britney Spears, she took some time out and went travelling. Fifteen years later in 2016, Melbourne’s Gretta Ray was Unearthed, and, just like Higgins, she resisted the record company pressure and made her debut album in her own way, and in her own time. “We take the space we need,” she notes. “We built this thing from the ground up.” The result is a classic debut, one of the year’s finest pop records, that sits comfortably alongside The Sound of White . Ray is conscious of the magic of making music, that it’s “bigger than me”. But she deserves all the success that’s headed her way. As she sings, “When you think like you dream, nothing’s an impossibility.” (EMI) Jeff Jenkins

“Somewhere a curtain falls,” Joe Camilleri sings in Another Blue Day , a standout on The Black Sorrows’ 19th studio album. “It’s the end of the play. For me, it’s just the start.” And though this is the 50th album in his remarkable career – yes, 50th – Camilleri crackles with the vitality of an artist who’s just embarking on his musical journey. If you need proof, check out the exhilarating Livin Like Kings . Reunited with English producer Peter Solley (who helmed Camilleri’s breakthrough album, 1979’s Screaming Targets with Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons), Saint Georges Road is sophisticated, soulful and superb, a crowning moment in a career that refuses to look back. Yep, consider this the end of Act One. There’s a lot of life left in Joe Camilleri. (Ambition) Jeff Jenkins

Vika & Linda The Wait

The waiting is the hardest part. And there’s no doubt that Vika & Linda fans have been patiently waiting – this is the sisters’ first album of original material in 19 years. As Vika Bull notes in the epic first single, My Heart Is In The Wrong Place , “things don’t always turn out like you planned”. But sometimes everything

goes right. There’s a Japanese proverb: If you wait long enough, it will be good weather. But this is the sound of two women taking control of their careers and refusing to play it safe. “I think it’s time to lob a hand grenade,” Linda sings. The result is as close to perfect as any record you’ll ever hear. Vika & Linda didn’t write any of the songs on the album, but they make every word their own. It’s their story. Their struggle. “I’m not the same girl singing the same song,” Linda states simply in the beautiful but powerful Not The Same Girl , while Vika sings: “You gotta hold on, you gotta believe.” The Bull sisters have also been patiently waiting. Fixtures of the Australian music scene for more than three decades, they now well and truly take centre stage after being 20 Feet from Stardom. “I won’t back down, this is my world now,” Linda declares in Raise Your Hand. It’s no idle boast, just a statement of fact. Their time is now. The Wait is the album of the year. (Bloodlines) Jeff Jenkins

Shane Nicholson Living In Colour

Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram 662

FEATURE ARTIST

Shane Nicholson knows the music world has changed and finding an audience is not easy. “The kids don’t hear your voice,” he notes in This Is War , “’cause they don’t own a radio.” But this record is definitely worth seeking out. More than two decades after his first release, Nicholson is doing his finest work. Living In Colour is both a celebration of music – check out Harvest On Vinyl – and a lament for a world gone crazy. No prizes for guessing who this line is about: “You’re still smilin’ like the cat that got the cream, as the house burns down.” Yep, Nicholson is an artist who worries about the state of the nation. “I wish I was a simple man,” he admits. “If I was a simple man, I’d sleep easy every night.” But long may he rest uneasy. The world needs more songwriters like him. (Lost Highway/Universal) Jeff Jenkins

Named after the telephone area code for his Northern Mississippi home, the second release from this 22-year- old guitarist, singer and songwriter has enhanced his reputation as the forerunner of the next generation of great American blues artists. What is so impressive about Kingfish is the maturity he brings to his singing and guitar-playing, which embody the spirits of B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, and Buddy Guy. His songs reference the lives of most 22-year-olds battling with everyday pressures of living in a world dealing with COVID, relationships, and family – his song Rock & Roll is a loving tribute to his late mother. Horn arrangements alongside elements of funk, rock, and acoustic balladry are all parts of the musical armory present in this young man's interpretation of the blues. (Alligator) Billy Pinnell

Manic Street Preachers The Ultra Vivid Lament

The If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next creators are masters of bittersweet pop. Opener Snowing In Sapporo is armchair-travel ear candy. Clocking in at six minutes (still too short!), the soaring, us-against-the-world octave leaps during this song’s choruses are soul medicine.

During The Secret He Had Missed (feat. Julia Cumming), which has been described as “cousin” to The Girl Who Wanted To Be God (from the Welsh band’s classic fourth album Everything Must Go ), dramatic keys evoke ABBA’s Waterloo . Mark Lanegan’s Johnny Cash-deep baritone is a glorious, moody addition to Blank Diary Entry . Poetic lyrics demand undivided attention (“And in the rhythm of your voice, I find space to rejoice/ My complicated illusions leave me with no choice”) and bassist/lyricist Nicky Wire’s tongue-twisters (eg. “derelict digitised”) test lead vocalist/guitarist James Dean Bradfield’s enunciation throughout. After losing both his parents within a couple of years, Wire has admitted he felt “overwhelmed”. He worked through some of these feelings via this album’s lyrical content and, as such, a melancholic, glacial undercurrent flows through The Ultra Vivid Lament . Never has an album been more aptly titled. (Sony) Bryget Chrisfield

22 SEPTEMBER 2021

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