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- in Hey Archetype , he manages to rhyme ”she’s a catfish-clawing mangler” with ”finagler”. It’s a joy. Though overall, The True North is a deeply unsettling listening experience. It’s an album torn between hope and despair. ”It’s never too late,” Garrett states in Innocence Parts 1 & 2 , but ”the only constant is inequality”. In Meltdown , the singer has ”got a ringside seat for the final countdown” but remains defiant: ”I won’t succumb to the grief”. Caught between the darkness and the dawn, the album ends with the artist wracked by self doubt. ”I find myself asking, ’Could I have done more?’ I find myself asking, ’Should I have done more?’” But Peter Garrett is still putting his hand up. ”I still feel the wild inside,” he declares in Human Playground . As Bono remarked, ”It’s like [Midnight Oil] were born from Whitlam’s phrase, ’Maintain your rage.’” The True North crackles with the vitality of an artist who’s lost none of his power and passion. Still ”speaking my truth any way I can”. Long may he rage. This will definitely be one of the albums of the year. (Sony) Jeff Jenkins

Jebediah Oiks Jebediah’s first Top 50 hit was called Leaving Home . They’ve been around so long, chances are their kids are now leaving home. Thirty years after they formed, there’s no doubt Jebediah have matured. Oiks , their sixth studio album, is the band’s most musically adventurous offering so far. See the range on display through opening track Bad for You , second single Rubberman , and closing cut Aqua - Lung find the four-piece in a reflective mood - though they’re still capable of being snotty and spiky - then check out The Slip , Start Again and IWANNAGETOUT . ”Been waiting a little too long,” Kevin Mitchell sings in the album’s riotous first single, Gum Up the Bearings . And yes, here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another 13 years for the next Jebs record. (Cooking Vinyl) Jeff Jenkins

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that is indifference.” They may have broken up and re-formed, but Garrett has got more to say. ”Time is on the move,” he acknowledges in Human Playground , one of the many standout tracks on his second solo album, ”a hungry beast, there’s much to do.” Musically, The True North is Garrett at his most adventurous. Paddo is a compelling slice of Aussie hip-hop, Innocence Part 2 is a stirring spoken word piece, Hey Archetype is classic rock ’n’ roll, while Permaglow and Human Playground find him at his most melodic. Lyrically, Garrett still possesses that ripping Aussie turn of phrase

Peter Garrett The True North

When Midnight Oil were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, Bono said: ”You can break up a band, but you can’t break up an idea. If Midnight Oil could mean any one idea, it would have to be that Australia could be more for more people and that the only obstacle to

Khruangbin A La Sala

Charley Crockett $10 Cowboy At the crossroads where classic Americana meets the vibrant resurgence of contemporary country, you’ll find Charley Crockett - a Texas-born artist vital for his time and place. $10 Cowboy tells the stories of the forgotten America that the world rarely gets to see, masquerading behind the facade of popular culture. America is a heartfelt missive to its namesake, expressing the complex and conflicted bond shared between the narrator and his homeland. On Hard Luck & Circumstances and Good at Losing , our protagonist finds solace in the understanding that our hardships inevitably shape us, and he eloquently romanticises this acceptance. At his best, Crockett brings these compositions to life with an almost cinematic quality. But even in its bleakest moments, $10 Cowboy radiates with endearing, affecting sentimentality. (Sons of Davy/Thirty Tigers) Alex Burgess

The title of Texan trio Khruangbin’s fifth album means ’To the room’, and that warmth of familial connectivity is here, along with views out of the room into textured, natural spaces too. Bird chirps, a spinning coin, and footfalls in ambient space are the sonic lace which links tracks like the dreamy May Ninth and the more dangerous, zig-zagging guitar of Ada Jean, while Farolim de Felgueiras probes minimalism, and Pon Pon brings the mood up into the sauntering territory for which this band is so revered. Todavia Viva has several false endings (a fantastic nod to its title, ’Still alive’) and Juegos Y Cubes thumps with the satisfying halts and accents Khruangbin nail every time. Rhythmically intricate and pulsing with inimitable, do-si-do guitar and bass lines, A La Sala is another feather in the cap of this peerless musical

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Mark Seymour and the Undertow The Boxer

As Rocky said, ”It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” Eleven albums into his solo career (following nine with Hunters & Collectors), Mark Seymour is somehow still

standing – and making the finest music of his career. ”The fire is still in my blood,” he declares in Brother . And he’s not wrong. Remarkably, Seymour has become a better singer and better songwriter, and he’s still striving to make great art. Seymour’s previous outfit was a mighty beast, a testosterone-filled blokey band that rarely did subtlety. With The Undertow, Seymour has discovered his sensitive side. The second song here, All My Rage , reveals how far he has come. ”I have raged against the sky,” the song starts, before Seymour states simply: ”I will love and not give up.” The Boxer is all about acceptance, not anger. Ultimately, the record is a fight for love. ”If not for money then do it for love,” Seymour sings in the title track. The final song, a cover of John Prine’s She Is My Everything , says it all in just one line: ”If I get lost, you can always find her standing right beside me in the rain.” The Boxer is the perfect companion to Seymour’s similarly impressive Slow Dawn from four years ago. Both are Aussie classics. (Bloodlines) Jeff Jenkins

hivemind’s journey. (Dead Oceans) ZKR

12 APRIL 2024

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