Home (Yeo)

TO those familiar with Melbourne-based Yeo Choong's past releases, the opening bars of his third album, Home, will come as a shock.

Yeo

TO those familiar with Melbourne-based Yeo Choong's past releases, the opening bars of his third album, Home, will come as a shock.

Acoustic guitar, harmonica and his voice are high in the mix, rather than the synthesisers and electric instruments that characterised his debut album, 2006's Trouble Being Yourself.

There, Choong walked the tightrope between pop and funk; to pin him as an Asian-Australian Justin Timberlake/Pharell hybrid was close to the mark.

On Home - available for download at http://snackswithyeo.bandcamp.com/ - the songs are near-nude in comparison, which forces the listener to focus on Choong's vocal and songwriting abilities.

It's a bold move, yet Choong clearly has the confidence in his own abilities. These are songs of gentle beauty. A banjo can be heard on Selma Blair and 10 & A Whiskey, while third track Meeting at Sea is the gentlest and most beautiful cut.

There are two rockers, August 28, 1973 and Caves, which break up the mellow instrumentation with electric guitars and forceful percussion. The gut instinct is to view Choong's stylistic change in terms of maturity. The 13 tracks show he has lost none of his writing abilities, but one hopes that Choong hasn't disposed of the synthesisers just yet, either.

LABEL: Independent
RATING: 3 ½ stars