STACK #156 Oct 2017

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Cub Sport Bats If you haven't already, it's time to start paying attention to ridiculously sonically gifted Queensland quartet Cub Sport. Last year they slayed Like A Version with a beautiful Kanye West cover, and now they’re suddenly everywhere. Fresh album Bats is about love, hope, prosperity, and acceptance of yourself. Band members Tim and Sam are a recently-public couple, and this experience shines through in Tim’s songwriting; it’s raw, vulnerable, and wholly magical. From single O Lord ’s pleading “Don’t turn your back on me/ I need you here with me” to Let U B ’s thoroughly relatable story of a relationship on the rocks, if Bats is anything to go by, Cub Sport are going nowhere but up. (Independent) Alesha Kolbe

Jess Locke Universe Having been a quiet achiever over the last few years, Jess Locke is now armed with an album that will no doubt put her on the country’s musical map. Locke’s manner of singing is languid, but her style is paired perfectly with her matter- of-fact, observational lyrics. Lush guitar arrangements seem to be her speciality, with tracks like Drive to Drink and Magic made all the more memorable as a result. Listening to cuts like Dangerous and Gut Feeling feels like hearing from an old friend, the effortless comfort they exude hard to come by in music nowadays. Universe is a refreshingly honest and straightforward album, which is sure to earn Jess Locke a reputation as one of Australia's most gifted singer-songwriters. (Pool House Records/Remote Control) Holly Pereira Jordan Rakei Wallflower On Wallflower , 25-year-old Jordan Rakei allows the hummingbird tremolo of his voice to radiate through some very sensitive arrangements; you can listen in hard and investigate the detailed, smooth-jazz kit rhythms (think Hiatus Kaiyote) or just let them patter over you, and piano chords take thoughtful steps as if they’re making their way over sunshower- shiny cobblestones. Subtle strings match poignant lyrics (“How can I find a reason to love you when I don’t love myself?” - Nerve ) and Rakei’s vocal harmonies are frankly pretty astonishing – they have an early Fat Freddy’s feel, although are possibly even more tender than Dallas’s. Rakei’s vision is unhurried and luminous; this wallflower is blooming bright. (NinjaTune/Inertia) Zoë Radas

Alex Lahey I Love You Like A Brother

Back in the ’90s – when Alex Lahey was born – it was called slacker pop. That genre and Generation X was summed up by one glorious Dinosaur Jr. line: “I feel the pain of everyone, then I feel nothing.” You could call Lahey’s genre “millennial angst”. I Love You Like A Brother opens with the

party anthem Every Day’s The Weekend , but for the rest of the record Lahey does more over-thinking than drinking. She’s worried about mortgages and marriage equality, and whether she should settle down or travel. “It’s hard for me to put my arms around you when your backpack’s on,” she sings in one of the album’s many genuinely affecting lines. Musically, Lahey owes as much to Blondie as recent releases. These are punk-tinged pop songs, sharp and sassy, with ripper rhyming couplets (“Who knew this turnaround would be so quick?” she spits in Awkward Exchange , “but I figured it out, you’re just a bit of a d-ck”). It’s not easy being young and restless when you have as many hang-ups as hook-ups, but Lahey has delivered a mighty debut. An album for our times. (Nicky Boy Records/Caroline) Jeff Jenkins

Slum Sociable Slum Sociable Miller Upchurch and Edward Quinn know when to keep it simple and when to flick it out with a bit of filigree soul, and wow, do they know their grooves. Slum Sociable is about expert use of keys and wubbing electronics, and the thick 'n' crispy goodness of breakbeat drums mixed super close to your ears. There’s a D.D Dumbo dexterity to the electric guitar on Hand It Over , with licks that refuse to slur; plinking marimba and a deep synth bass on the tonic give Treated Like The Weather the colour of Sir Was or Sinkane, and Upchurch’s vocals – which don’t have some mad technical brilliance, but utilise mega addictive melodies – evoke ‘90s Aussies like, in their more contemplative moments, Custard and Machine Gun Fellatio. (Liberation) Zoë Radas

The Heartache State Last Of The Buffalo The Heartache State’s second album opens with Honey Slide , a song about the fleeting and fickle nature of fame – a subject Nick Barker knows a thing or two about. When he was the next big thing fronting Nick Barker and The Reptiles, he wanted them to be a great bar band, like Georgia Satellites, but the record company pictured them as hair rock stadium stars. With The Heartache State , Barker has finally got the bar band he desired: loose and ragged, with Stonesy swagger. On the title track (written by Tim Rogers) he declares, “You and me are the last of the buffalo.” Barker might not have conquered the world, but he’s a great rock star. (Golden Robot Records) Jeff Jenkins

Lucinda Williams This Sweet Old World Lucinda Williams is one of the most outstanding, influential and iconic Americana singer- songwriters there is. It’s the 25th anniversary of her fourth album Sweet Old World , and to celebrate, Williams and her amazing live band have given it a makeover by re-recording the complete album (originally released between two of her standout offerings, 1988's Lucinda Williams and her breakthrough, 1998's Car Wheels On A Gravel Road ) And if re-recording a whole album wasn’t enough, she's added new versions of the four songs that didn’t make the original. Revisited, revived, rearranged and rewritten: as Williams says, “It’s like a whole new album”. Thanks Lucinda. (ThirtyTigers/Cooking Vinyl) Denise Hylands

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