STACK #223 May 2023

MUSIC REVIEWS

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FEATURE ARTIST

Angel Olsen Forever Means

Cash Savage and the Last Drinks So This Is Love Melbourne’s hometown heroes return with their most personal and life-affirming record to date, band leader Cash Savage reconciling with the breakdown of her marriage and a mental breakdown with gut wrenching honesty. The sprawling title track opens the record, Savage delivering an almost spoken word vocal before the Last Drinks come in to harness the song’s full power. Push is a blistering punk song that opens with Savage wryly relaying, “My mumma told me crying doesn’t suit my face”, while Every Day Is the Same is a tender meditation on depression and heartbreak that serves as the album’s most moving moments. So This Is Love is an undeniably strong record, one that will easily slot into the very top

Hot off the tail of 2022’s Big Time , Angel Olsen unveils Forever Means , a four-track EP that oscillates between intimate and sweeping compositions carried by her unmistakable vocal. The EP’s title track is reminiscent of Olsen’s early work, the lone guitar and emotive lyrics packing a dual punch. Opening track Nothing’s Free feels like a late night confession in the form of a song, complete with jazz bar style piano and saxophone, the band performing until the song slowly fades out to a rousing organ. Holding On is an invigorating closer, strings adding an exciting dynamic to a song that makes sense of a broken relationship, Olsen holding nothing back in the process. (Jagjaguwar) Holly Pereira

The Barnestormers The Barnestormers Jimmy Barnes. The Living End’s Chris Cheney. Stray Cats’ Slim Jim Phantom. Squeeze’s Jools Holland, and producer Kevin 'Caveman' Shirley. Five legends spread over three continents. Supergroups don’t always work, but The Barnestormers’ self-titled debut is a success from start to finish because the aim is simple: having fun. They’ve delivered a riotous rockabilly rave-up, with songs celebrating the origins of rock ’n’ roll. Remarkably, all the band members had not even met before embarking on this record. But it sounds like they’re all in the same room, ripping through classics by Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Bill Haley, Johnny Burnette, and Brenda Lee. The songs range from wanting a new car (Chuck Berry’s Dear Dad ) to the working man’s tale of woe (Roy Orbison’s Working for the Man ), and the wonderfully absurd Thirteen Women (And Only One Man) , where it’s the end of the world and the singer is the only man left on earth. They also revisit Johnny O’Keefe’s Wild One (using its American title, Real Wild Child ), as well as Don Walker’s solo gem Johnny’s Gone, and a recent Cold Chisel cut, Land of Hope and Glory . And Cheney contributes a new track, 25 to Life , which sits comfortably alongside the classics. The Barnestormers is one of 2023’s great party records. Drop the needle and turn it up loud. (Bloodlines) Jeff Jenkins

Australian releases of 2023. (Mistletone) Holly Pereira

Black Country, New Road Live at Bush Hall After the departure of their lead singer Isaac Wood, UK experimental outfit Black Country, New Road made the choice to reconfigure their line-up, with band members Tyler Hyde, Lewis Evans and Georgia Kershaw now sharing vocals. Live at Bush Hall deviates from a live album’s usual setup in that it features entirely unreleased material previously only played live. With the absence of a member naturally comes an evolved band, and that truth presents in a far more cinematic sound than previous releases. Despite these tracks having previously lived unrecorded or officially unreleased, you can hear audience members singing along with lyrics, which just goes to show how adored this band truly is. A

Alex Lahey The Answer Is Always Yes

Kate Ceberano My Life Is a Symphony For her 30th album, Kate Ceberano has revisited songs from her catalogue – hits and otherwise – reimagining them with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Starting with a haunting version of the title track of her first solo album Brave , Ceberano draws on material from five albums, breathing new life into four decades of work. Produced by Justin Stanley and Roscoe James Irwin, the MSO provides an exquisite backing, though Irwin’s clever arrangements mean that the focus remains fixed on Ceberano’s peerless voice. Check out the poetic beauty of the previously unheralded Earth & Sky and Courage . In a career filled with diverse delights, My Life Is a Symphony is a high point. It’s time Ceberano was inducted into the

Rickie Lee Jones Pieces of Treasure While Rickie Lee Jones can sit comfortably among popular music's all-time great singer-songwriters, her gift for being able to inhabit songs she didn't write can be evidenced on albums where she mixes jazz tunes with covers of songs recorded by The Beatles, David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, Steely Dan, and Bad Company. For her 15th release she's chosen to record an entire album of covers with a quartet of exceptional musicians, whose arrangements enhance her emotive interpretations of timeless songs that include Just in Time , Nature Boy, All the Way, It's All in the Game, September Song, On the Sunny Side of the Street, and One for My Baby. Great singers can masterfully inhabit songs such as these so that you believe every word. (BMG) Billy Pinnell

“Everyone’s a bit f-cked up.” The opening line of Alex Lahey’s third album reveals much about the Melbourne artist. Yep, she’s got a potty mouth. And she’s also acutely aware of the absurdity of life; that we’re all different, and it’s okay to be a freak living on the fringes. Indeed, Lahey has delivered a set of anthems for the outsider. They Wouldn’t Let Me In recalls the trauma of not fitting in when you’re a teenager, slacker-pop cut Congratulations documents the pain of seeing an ex move on, while Good Time is a sunny slice of suburban storytelling, kind of Sheryl Crow meets Courtney Barnett. Even when she’s “playing the same three f-cking chords”, Lahey takes us on a terrific trip, with a collection that poses the question: Is it okay to be different? And the answer is always "yes." (Liberation) Jeff Jenkins

must-listen for art rock fans. (NinjaTune) Holly Pereira

ARIA Hall of Fame. (ABC) Jeff Jenkins

56 MAY 2023

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