Raising the musical standards for your children

Introduce your kids to some great artists, not just Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran.

Sarah Blasko, owner of one of the most powerful and evocative voices working today in Australian music.

1. Home Tonight: Paul McCartney

Maybe — just maybe — the songs that appear here will broaden your children’s horizons beyond the here and now, to begin lifelong love affairs with the artists who blazed the trail for today’s hitmakers. So let’s start at the top, with the world’s greatest living songwriter and former Beatle, who released this infectious, horn-driven, three-minute slice of pop perfection in November, aged 77. If they like this one, well, there’s plenty more where that came from.

2. All Over Now: The Cranberries

The final studio album by this Irish rock band was released last year, following the death of singer Dolores O’Riordan in January 2018, aged 46. Thankfully, she had already laid down her vocals for these tracks, so her bandmates were able to finalise the arrangements while mourning her loss. This is the opening track from In The End, and if the kids are beguiled by her extraordinary voice — as they should be — best to show them her spine-tingling performance in Linger right away.

3. Getting the Band Back Together: Cold Chisel

Few bands in Australian rock have made a bigger impact than this Adelaide-born quartet, whose ninth studio album, Blood Moon, was released last month and debuted at No 1 on the ARIA chart. This is the first single, a typically smart and witty Don Walker composition about weekend warriors toying with the notion of revisiting past glories. Its opening lines might even be a little close to the truth for some dads: “Davo’s polishing an antique Strat that no musician could afford / He’s got himself a twin and a pork pie hat / He’s got himself a new jazz chord …”

4. Come Midnight: Andrew Farriss

The songwriter behind many of the greatest INXS songs chose 2019 as the year to announce his reinvention as a country singer-songwriter. This is his compelling debut in that vein, and if the youngsters dig this one, now is a great opportunity to show them the best of what Farriss cooked up with his brothers and Michael Hutchence a few decades ago.

5. Phantom: Sarah Blasko

This was the lead single and opening track from Blasko’s sixth album, Depth of Field, released in early 2018. It’s a stunning set of songs that saw her working with electronic textures and instruments — an unexpected yet welcome evolution. Hers is one of the most powerful and evocative voices working today in Australian music.

6. With The One I Love: Paul Kelly

The lead single from Kelly’s 24th studio album pulses with the push-and-pull of light and dark tones. It’s all over within 2½ minutes, but it’s a hell of a mood-setter and a fine example of one of the nation’s most cherished artists continuing to make vital and relevant art. Last year marked 40 years since the release of Kelly’s debut single and, as his recent Making Gravy headline concerts showed, his popularity continues to climb.

7. All This Music Must Fade: The Who

This is the opening track from the 12th album by this British rock group, whose founding members, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, have been making music together for 55 years. As The Australian’s critic Phil Stafford put it in a recent review of the album, Who — which he awarded 4½ stars, this song is a restatement of the band’s manifesto: “block chords, busy drums, a call-to-arms chorus and lyrics that condemn not only the cyclic frivolity of musical trends but the latter-day tendency to litigate against soundalikes”.

8. Charcoal Lane: Courtney Barnett

At a recent MTV Unplugged recording session, one of our great contemporary singer-songwriters elected to cover the title track of Archie Roach’s 1990 debut album. It’s a wonderful cover of an important song in Australian music history, and even more so thanks to Barnett’s decision to ask Paul Kelly — who co-produced the album — to make a guest appearance.

9. My Criminal Record: Jimmy Barnes

Co-written with Cold Chisel bandmate Don Walker, the title track from Barnes’s 17th studio album is a rollicking yarn pulled from the pages of his own life. With this release, Barnesy became the outright record holder for most No 1 albums on the ARIA chart, an honour he previously held jointly with U2 and Madonna.

10. Fear Inoculum: Tool

Metal bands have come and gone over the decades but few have exhibited the staying power and popularity of Tool, the progressive metal quartet from Los Angeles whose fifth album was released last year following a 13-year gap in its recording history. This is the eerie, sprawling title track from that album. At 10 minutes, it might test the patience of younger listeners — but it might also blow their tiny minds, too.