Thelma Plum, Collective Soul, Arch Enemy: New album reviews

First Nations artist Thelma Plum pays tribute to Brisbane landmarks on her new lockdown EP PLUS Collective Soul and Arch Enemy. VOTE FOR BRISBANE’S ICONS

Thelma Plum has released the fruits of her isolation.

This week’s album review from The Courier-Mail (ratings out of five stars):

INDIE POP

Thelma Plum, Meanjin (EP)

(Warner) ***1/2

Three decades since Custard gave us a mini-album called Brisbane, modern-day indie darling and First Nations artist Thelma Plum presents an EP that shares the Turrbal name for our River City. Forced home from London by the pandemic, Plum looked inward to the place that birthed her. On opener The Brown Snake she compares the colour of Maiwar (aka the Brisbane River) to that of her eyes and skin: “It winds around this country town/Sometimes a flood brings up to tears… It’s always raining in the Sunshine State.” Elsewhere there are references to Vulture St, the Expo 88 Skyneedle and Queenslanders on the hill. Plum has a cursive vocal style, and songs such as the strummy, bittersweet, Fleetwood Mac-esque When It Rains It Pours showcase her nuanced performance. The pulsating, infectious Backseat of My Mind is a standout – “I could hold the wheel forever if I knew you’d be there too” – while she ranges between almost-spoken-word and falsetto on Baby Blue Bicycle with its stark, plodding piano refrain.

ROCK

Collective Soul, Vibrating

(Fuzze-Flex) ***1/2

They might be best known for their ’90s output, with hints such as December, Gel and The World I Know, but Georgian rockers Collective Soul have been consistently releasing records ever since. And in those interceding years they’ve retained their melodic-pop-rock chops – Think Live, Biffy Clyro or even Jimmy Eat World – while frontman Ed Roland’s distinctive commanding vocals remain similarly undimmed by time. They come out of the gate at breakneck pace with Cut the Cord, while similarly driving follow-up Reason is radio-friendly goodness. Rule No.1 with its symphonic strains and soaring vocals recalls their ’90s hits. And Roland is a Seinfeld-esque everyman in a post-truth world on Just Looking Around, while In Conversation With observes: “I’ve so much to learn with the Earth’s daily turn/I’ve so much to see with my own company.” Then there’s the Wild Thing central riff of Take, the T-Rex-esque harmonies of Where Do I Go and the Floydian guitar strains of Back Again.

METAL

Arch Enemy, Deceivers

(Century Media) ***

A female singer is a novelty for a death metal band, and Alissa White-Gluz’s vocals have the effect on elevating Sweden’s Arch Enemy to epic, operatic levels at times: such as on opener Handshake With Hell and the penultimate One Last Time on this, their 11th studio effort. There’s the machinegun percussion, breakneck speed and demonic vocals of title-ish track Deceiver, Deceiver and the ominous slow build of In the Eye of the Storm. “Is it worth fighting for/Or even dying for?” they ask on the melodic, anthemic Poisoned Arrow, while they reach peak grandiosity on Sunset Over the Empire: “Welcome to the apocalypse, the end of days/Rulers of the wasteland rejoice in the flames.”