Album review: Gretta Ray’s Positive Spin ‘bright, bold, and full of life’
The Melbourne artist has established herself as one of the country’s most thoughtful and clever pop songwriters, with plenty of tricks proudly plucked from the book of Taylor Swift.
Album reviews for week of September 1 2023:
POP
Positive Spin
Gretta Ray
EMI Music Australia
On her 2021 debut Begin To Look Around, Melbourne’s Gretta Ray established herself as one of the country’s most thoughtful and clever pop songwriters, with plenty of tricks proudly plucked from the book of Taylor Swift. The album felt wide-eyed and awed, as the young artist began to move, tentatively, through the world. Positive Spin, her second record, couldn’t be a more marked change: Ray sounds confident and strong across its bounding and heady 12 tracks, wherein she waves goodbye to terrible exes who mistreated her and embraces the joy of being young and free in a world suddenly reopened. It’s an intensely intimate album, from the personal love letter of Dear Seventeen to the wry Don’t Date A Teenager, but — like all skilled pop writers — Ray makes these personal stories feel universal. She is particularly gifted at capturing lyrical photographs: a pair of worn Converse by the door; a cheeseboard and a blow-up pool at a backyard party; bagels in a cardboard box, or “sitting in a restaurant with a coward”. The specificities bring Positive Spin to life: this is an album that has truly been lived in.
Her habit of colliding bars together and running lines into the next makes every song feel urgent and energetic, particularly on album highlight You’ve Already Won and the punchy Upgraded. Dear Seventeen was written as a delicate letter to Ray’s younger self — there are obvious comparisons to Swift’s Fifteen — and it is simply superb songwriting: it’s a simple yet deceptively difficult song structure to get right, but Ray sticks the landing. The artist circled the world to piece together Positive Spin, working with writers and producers in Nashville, Los Angeles, London, and plenty here at home — including in-demand locals like Gab Strum (Mallrat, MAY-A), and Robby De Sa (5 Seconds of Summer, The Veronicas). Despite the disparate pieces, the entire album is bathed in the same soft, vaseline-lens glow, wherein the synths and guitars ring and hum under Ray’s vocals. There are other lovely instrumental touches heard throughout, too, such as the floating harmonies on Can’t Keep it Casual, or the strings that subtly lift penultimate track Light On. A couple of songs drift by without much impact (Loving Somebody, Light On), but the album closes warmly with the scratchy, country-flecked America Forever, which features guest appearances by Maisie Peters and Carol Ades. All critical quibbles, however, are minor; bright, bold, and full of life, Positive Spin is Gretta Ray at her best.
Jules LeFevre
FOLK
Joni Mitchell At Newport
Joni Mitchell
Rhino
This momentous surprise for the 2022 Newport Folk Festival marked Joni Mitchell’s return to it after 53 years – not to mention her first full performance anywhere for 22, and first since her 2015 aneurysm. She’s sat on a throne of sorts, smiling and laughing constantly, in a semicircle with instruments in every corner. Brandi Carlile sits to Mitchell’s side, in constant awe of her idol. This so-called ‘Joni Jam’ roped in myriad artists to help carry the folk legend back to centrestage: Dawes figurehead Taylor Goldsmith leads a tender Come In From the Cold, while indie-pop duo Lucius help Mitchell and co reclaim Big Yellow Taxi from the 2002 cover by Counting Crows. Like most jams, it doesn’t always mesh: Marcus Mumford stumbles while duetting A Case of You, and Carlile’s constant (albeit understandable) excited interjections are a little overkill. Still, when Mitchell takes lead on Both Sides Now and plays guitar for the first time in decades on Just Like This Train, it’s an immediate kind of magic.
David James Young
PROGRESSIVE METAL
Fearless in Love
Voyager
Season of Mist
Despite being a band for nearly 25 years, Perth’s Voyager became an “overnight” success story when it was selected to represent Australia at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Its eighth album, then, arrives with more eyes on the band than ever before, something not lost on the keytar-wielding quintet, which offers not only the tune that got it to Liverpool (Promise) but an arsenal of tracks with similarly sky-high ambition, the best of which is the dancefloor-ready Dreamer. It’s a relief to know Voyager hasn’t smoothed out its sharper edges, with duelling guitars shredding consistently, but it’s simultaneously apparent the campness has been notched up in order to satiate Eurovision newcomers. As such, Fearless in Love outstays its welcome quicker than your average Voyager voyage. Still, you can’t blame the band for taking advantage of its new-found momentum – after all, fellow heavy Eurovision act Lordi did exactly the same nearly 20 years prior. Overdue success beats none whatsoever.
David James Young
JAZZ
Hearing
Mike Nock
ABC Jazz
This is the legendary Mike Nock’s first solo piano album since 1993, when he recorded his album, Touch, in the ABC’s Eugene Goossens Hall. Thirty years later, Hearing was recorded in the same venue, producing an album that provides valuable insights into Nock’s exquisite pianism. The mood is overwhelmingly elegiac. While most of the album’s 13 tracks are brief, its highlights are four tracks where Nock stretches out for more than six minutes apiece. They include Vale John, a tribute to drummer John Pochee, who died shortly before this recording session took place, and the lovely Bernie McGann composition, Spirit Song, a reminder that Pochee and McGann were the first two Australian jazz musicians 18-year-old Nock met when he arrived from New Zealand in 1958. Spirit Song, now a much-recorded classic, gets a most sensitive and affectionate reading — as does Jonathan Zwartz’s And In The Night Comes Rain, wherein Nock demonstrates his great ability to maximise the beauty inherent in another composer’s set of chord changes.
Eric Myers
WORLD
History
Bokante
Real World
Bokante is a mind-blowing, genre-blending group masterminded by Barcelona-based US multi-instrumentalist Michael League, who has brought together musicians from five nations and four continents in glorious harmony while highlighting their individual brilliance. Swept along by adventurous arrangements that generate a swirling melange of polyrhythmic sound, the band hits a wondrous new peak with the third album in its seven-year history. Singing predominantly in the Guadeloupean Creole of her Caribbean heritage, Montreal-based diva Malika Tirolien delivers songs that emphasise the futility of war and the need for global unity with a mixture of panache and poise. The Arabic oud, West African ngoni and North African guembri playing of League offer cosmopolitan contrast to the Western strings of his Snarky Puppy guitarist bandmates and the blistering blues-rock breaks of lap steel whiz Roosevelt Collier, while a hard-driving battery of ace Afro-accented percussionists, headed by Paul Simon sideman Jamey Haddad, imbues History with a mesmeric, mercurial pulse.
Tony Hillier
Album reviews for week of August 25 2023:
ROCK/POP
Dan Sultan
Dan Sultan
Liberation Records
The eponymous album as artistic statement is a tale as old as time. That’s Dan Sultan the man on the cover of Dan Sultan the album, words and music by Dan Sultan. He wants you – nay, needs you – to know that this one right here is the real deal. The most genuine product of his already illustrious 15-year career, it comes after a recent rough patch that includes a drunken public incident in 2018 that led him towards sobriety, as well as getting married and welcoming the arrival of two children. This framework really makes you want to root for Sultan and his journey along the straight and narrow – and, to the album’s credit, it’s topped and tailed by songs that validate that exact feeling. The acoustic waltz of opener Story pairs Sultan’s soulful and striking vocals with emotive lyrics about standing firm in his identity – in a manner not dissimilar to that of a key mentor, the late, great Archie Roach. On the other side, the piano-driven Lashings provides a standstill moment that truly captures the resonance and clarity of Sultan as a performer; it’s the rare kind of song that feels as though it could bring an entire room to pin-drop silence. Paired together, they’re two of the finest moments across his entire discography.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily take for the rest of the eponymous effort. What makes Story and Lashings such great songs are how intimate and stark they feel, with only some tambourine hits on the former and some keyboard ambience on the latter. When the songs are too layered or over-produced, the impact of Sultan’s voice is not only cushioned but is – crucially – muffled. The shapeless electronica of Fortress, with a cooing Julia Stone in tow, feels like background music for a cafe. Worse yet, on a track like Saint Nor Sinner – whose title suggests Sultan is keen to reckon with his recent past – he feels completely out of place on what feels like a pastiche of 1980s pop-rock, complete with way-too-loud synths and a walloping gated snare. In no way is it being suggested that Sultan should solely stick to acoustic ballads, but on an album that’s supposed to be the Dan Sultan album, he is often attempting styles and sounds that he ultimately achieved to greater effect on previous LPs like 2017’s underrated Killer, or even 2014’s ARIA Award-winning Blackbird. Perhaps Sultan was hoisted by his own petard by buying into playing the self-titled game, but at the very least, the search for the ultimate Dan Sultan studio album continues – and there’s no denying that there’s still some stunning gems to be found along the way.
David James Young
ROCK/ROOTS
Duets
Kevin Borch
SGC Music
It may surprise some that Kevin Borich – Australasia’s premier blues-rock guitarist for 50 years and more – is equally adept across a range of genres from jazz and soul to hard rock and gospel. Testament to his versatility is Duets, collaborations with the likes of Tim Rogers, Russell Morris, Suze DeMarchi, Ian Moss, Ella Hooper, Joe Camilleri, Leo Sayer and Ross Wilson. Rather than record random covers, usually the way with such vanity projects, all 12 songs are Borich originals defined by the unique qualities each guest brings to the table. Picks from this cabinet of curiosities are Covered In Blue, a tribute to Amy Winehouse featuring soul-gospel chanteuse Angela Fabian; big ballad closer There Is A Road, on which John “Swanee” Swan and Fabian trade soaring vocal chops; Soapbox Bitchin’, where Rose Tattoo’s Angry Anderson sticks it to the big banks as Borich blows the vaults on slide guitar; and The Fires, a duet led by the unmistakable voice and guitar of Joe Walsh, in memory of the Black Summer blazes of 2019-20.
Phil Stafford
JAZZ
The Bach Project
Michelle Nicolle
Earshift Music
If there’s such a phenomenon as the perfect jazz singer, Michelle Nicolle is far and away my choice. She has beautiful sound quality in all registers, a faultless vibrato and, in the difficult art of scat singing, only the brilliant artists Kristin Berardi and Sharny Russell, in the Australian context, come close to her. This album, a jazz treatment of various J S Bach pieces, is one in which to luxuriate. Her brilliant and well-recorded trio — Geoff Hughes (guitar), Tom Lee (double bass) and Ronny Ferella (drums) — has never sounded better. Along the way, Nicolle provides definitive versions of two classic standards, Horace Silver’s Lonely Woman and Monk’s Round Midnight, plus a version of Bach’s March in D Major, which serves as a tribute to Ornette Coleman. Deprived of product, it has taken me too long to fully appreciate the artistry of this wonderful Melbourne-based singer, originally from Adelaide. I’m glad to say that, courtesy of this great album, the penny has finally dropped.
Eric Myers
ALTERNATIVE
My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross
Anohni and The Johnsons
Inertia
Ever since her breakout record in 2005, chimerical singer-songwriter Anohni Hegarty has continuously found new sonic configurations in which to house her once-in-a-generation vibrato. While this includes baroque pop, folk and experimental electronica, it’s the return of her band The Johnsons that helps craft what is possibly her most compelling record yet. Equally inspired by the blue-eyed soul movement as the protest songs of Gaye and Simone, this fifth album is an exquisite demonstration of musical sensitivity. Working with producer Jimmy Hogarth, known for his writing with Amy Winehouse and Duffy, Anohni uses a palette of ’60s guitar and a tasteful rhythm section as a launch pad to soar into new worlds. Lead single It Must Change and It’s My Fault unfurl beauty from within repetition, as each section twists and changes vocally during its two-minute run. Elsewhere the jagged, distorted onslaught of Go Ahead releases her into full force. But it’s the tenderly brutal centrepiece Can’t, where Anohni rails against the futility of a friend’s suicide, that truly makes this a return to remember.
Jonathan Seidler
WORLD
To Those Who Came Before Us
Joseph Tawadros
Independent
Joseph Tawadros, one of the world’s most prodigious and prolific practitioners of oud, the ancient Arabic lute, takes a singular and symmetrical approach with his 20th album in his 20th year as a recording artist, and as he approaches 40. The versatility of his ensemble releases might be missing but, in return, admirers of the Australian-Egyptian’s playing get to fully savour the sheer virtuosity and nuances of his exquisite musicianship. Across 20 tracks – from an eight-minute-plus opening piece to a closing number that’s barely a minute long – Tawadros adheres to taqasim, the traditional Arabic musical art form of improvisation, while tipping his fez to maestros of yore and to those who have inspired his thoughts, dreams and feelings, and put him on the path he’s on today. In essence, this multi-ARIA winning lutist executes a meditative hour-long improv that’s commensurate to the tradition of a centuries-old art. The prowess of Tawadros’s playing through this extended modal journey is exemplary, even to a layman’s ears.
Tony Hillier
Album reviews for week of August 18 2023:
ALTERNATIVE/HIP-HOP
Struggler
Genesis Owusu
Ourness / AWAL
Kofi Owusu-Ansah is a musician whose art is hard to define — and that is what makes it, and him, a breath of fresh air. The artist who performs as Genesis Owusu has had what has felt like a meteoric rise over the past few years, after being thrust into the national and international spotlight with the success of his debut album, 2021’s Smiling With No Teeth. That release made Owusu a multiple ARIA Award-winner, and established the Canberra-based, Ghanaian-Australian artist as a dynamic and fearless performer. The record, beautiful in its complexities, presented a chaotic blend of hip-hop, nu-funk, and alternative influences, all delivered with a brazen punk attitude. Whatever was to follow such a statement of intent immediately came laden with high expectations. Two years later arrives his second album, Struggler. A collection of music that is built on a foundation of themes including survival and perseverance, Struggler continues the story that Smiling With No Teeth started. Where the former navigated Owusu’s experiences with racism and depression, Struggler exists in a space where the focus is to overcome, and to endure.
Inspired by classic texts including Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, it also has real-world inspiration: a close friend of the artist hit a particular low point, but eventually was able to come out the other side. Owusu recorded the album between the US and Australia, working with several key collaborators — including Jason Evigan (Rufus Du Sol), Mikey Freedom (Jon Batiste’s Grammy-winning album We Are), and Sol Was (Beyonce’s career-defining album, Renaissance) — to build this unique world of sounds and aesthetic. Struggler finds its pace between the fervent (opener Leaving the Light), the gleefully disjointed (mid-album track Tied Up!), and pure mania (The Roach, Freak Boy). Owusu’s vocal cadence flows easily between direct and aggressive, as well as being charming and seductive. It’s what gives the overall work a sense of mischief: the first listen is enjoyable, but it’s the repeated plays that offer the listener the substance in which to properly immerse themselves. Though there is a lot happening conceptually and sonically on Struggler, nothing feels out of place – a testament to the songwriting and core vision of the project. Eleven tracks that capture a flurry of emotions, set to music arranged and delivered at breakneck speed, Struggler is the natural next step in the evolution of Genesis Owusu, the global star in the making.
Sosefina Fuamoli
POST-PUNK
All Her Plans
Cable Ties
Poison City
The pandemic stifled the impact of Cable Ties’ 2020 album Far Enough, along with the Melbourne trio’s international plans. The band comes roaring back on this third album, with some notable changes. Singer/guitarist Jenny McKechnie’s scathing lyrics now zoom out from frustrating inequities in the Australian music scene to tackle broader systemic failings. Perfect Client addresses serious flaws in healthcare, while Silos laments the links between addiction and incarnation. Other songs focus on personal mental health: opener Crashing Through recounts the quest for inner stability amid an onrush of fears, and Thoughts Back sees drummer Shauna Boyle sing lead to document her own experiences with mental illness. Yet the clearest evolution comes in the softening of Cable Ties’ fierce attack on the romantic respite Time For You and the ballad Mum’s Caravan, featuring acoustic guitar and piano from Michael Beach. In their way, those are just as powerful as McKechnie’s more eruptive take-downs.
Doug Wallen
JAZZ
Alive At Loft
Shannon Barnett Quartet
Klaeng Records
Based in Germany, Australian trombonist Shannon Barnett has been, since 2019, Professor for Jazz Trombone at Cologne’s Conservatory for Music and Dance. Her local quartet, formed in 2015, primarily plays her original compositions. It includes Stefan Karl Schmid (tenor saxophone), David Helm (bass) and Fabian Arends (drums). For this live recording Barnett accepted an invitation to play standards, enabling her to reframe six compositions that have special meaning for her. The result is a wonderful album of contemporary modern jazz, played with sure-footed professionalism. As an improviser on trombone, Barnett has a lovely mellow tone, highly melodic lines, and an infectious sense of freedom in her playing. A memorable highlight is the classic Ballad Of The Sad Young Men, which features guest guitarist Ella Zirina, and is beautifully sung by Barnett. This suggests that, like Nicki Parrott, a lucrative career as a vocalist is open to her.
Eric Myers
FOLK/EXPERIMENTAL
I Inside the Old Year Dying
PJ Harvey
Partisan/Liberator
PJ Harvey’s 10th album plays like a notable reset, despite continuing her decades-long collaboration with producers John Parish and Flood. Much quieter than the brash rock and political barbs of 2011’s Let England Shake and 2016’s The Hope Six Demolition Project, these arrangements sprang from live-in-the-room improvisations as well as from Adam “Cecil” Bartlett’s spliced field recordings. As a result, they flicker with unstable textures like gurgling analog synths and scratchy distortion while rickety rhythms and incantatory refrains come and go. The British songwriter set out to sing unlike herself this time, and so she adopts a craggy warble on the Portishead-esque opener Prayer at the Gate, a feathery trill on Lwonesome Tonight [sic] and warped falsetto on The Nether-edge. This far into her sterling career, Harvey can certainly afford to grow more ruminative and abstract in her lyrics – she’s released two books of poetry in the past decade – while courting increasing experimentation. Whatever the mode, she remains downright engaging.
Doug Wallen
ELECTRONIC
Sisyphus
Golden Features
Warner/Foreign Family Collective
Having achieved both underground and commercial success via 2018 debut LP Sect, Sydney producer Tom Stell resisted the lure of a quick follow-up, instead linking with US duo Odesza for collaborative project Bronson while plotting his next solo move. Last year’s release of dark track Endit, with its chopped-up vocals, and the similarly ominous, hypnotic Vigil provided a glimpse of Stell’s growth. Now, Sisyphus confirms Golden Features’ position as one of Australia’s premier electronic acts, a fact further reinforced by the thousands flocking to his current national tour. Stell has drawn inspiration from a restorative stint immersed in Berlin’s hedonistic club scene, and it’s thus unsurprisingly high-tempo and peak-time fare, full of thundering bass, glitchy synths and driving, urgent beats, balanced by thoughtful vocal performances. Pounding current single Flesh, with its euphoric breakdown and filtered vocal stabs, reflects the energy throughout, while Melbourne’s Rromarin impresses as both co-writer and vocalist on four tracks, with her wispy pipes adding to the intensity on moody thumper Touch.
Tim McNamara