Burning Boy (Joe McKee)

THESE 10 sparsely adorned songs represent a significant shift for Perth-based songwriter Joe McKee, who fronted the West Australian quartet Snowman for eight years until their amicable split in 2011.

Joe McKee: Burning Boy

THESE 10 sparsely adorned songs represent a significant shift for Perth-based songwriter Joe McKee, who fronted the West Australian quartet Snowman for eight years until their amicable split in 2011.

Snowman were among the darkest, scariest acts to lurk at the fringes of Australian indie rock: though they crisscrossed the nation dozens of times, garnered occasional Triple J airplay and toured as part of the biggest festivals, their gloomy, confronting style ensured many chose to overlook their three (excellent) albums.

Burning Boy, McKee's solo debut, is a much gentler affair. His deep voice, surprisingly, is front and centre: McKee favoured higher-pitched shrieks and yells on most Snowman tracks. Its a nice change.

Stylistically, Burning Boy bears similarities to Adalita Srsen's debut album, Adalita, released last year: Srsen, too, chose to step away from the noise and bluster of her rock band Magic Dirt, and the result was a beautiful collection of songs that featured little more than voice and six-string. Here, McKee opts to linger over syllables in that hypnotising baritone, while finger-picked guitar and atmospheric string arrangements drift in and out of focus.

These are delicate songs of introspection, marked by occasional bursts of energy: bass, drums and an electric guitar interject toward the end of An Open Mine, while pulsing standout A Double Life could well be a Snowman b-side.

McKee's noted fondness for looped vocal motifs appear in Golden Guilt; his command of clever wordplay is best exemplified in album opener Lunar Sea ("Am I sinking deeper / Down into the lunacy?"). An absorbing and accomplished debut.

Label: Dot Dash/Remote Control
Rating: 4 stars