Any Old Love (Halfway)

EIGHT players make up Halfway, a rock band from Brisbane that uses banjo, pedal steel guitar, piano and mandolin.

Any Old Love (Halfway)

EIGHT players make up Halfway, a rock band from Brisbane that injects banjo, pedal steel guitar, piano and mandolin into the genre's usual instrumentation.

The central lyrical theme on Any Old Love is evident in the title: almost all of the 13 tracks are love songs in one shape or another. Whether it's the exploration of that emotion in its nascent stages (Honey I Like You) or towards the end of a difficult relationship (Hard Life Loving You), the prose is never less than honest and true.

So, too, are the razor-sharp melodies conjured by these eight men, particularly album opener Dropout, a ludicrously catchy instant-classic that is at once familiar and unique. In a departure from the shared duties observed on 2010's excellent An Outpost Of Promise, almost all of these songs are credited to John Busby, who shares vocals with fellow guitarist Chris Dale.

Both possess soft, distinctive voices that sit snugly amid their bandmates' driving groove. There is depth to the stories told here, too: "Bar stories and cautionary tales on the Central Western Line", reads a subtitle in the liner notes, referring to the 780km Queensland railway system that runs from the state's Emerald to Hughenden.

There's even a helpful glossary that lists 13 terms and names mentioned in the lyrics; clearly, a lot of thought has gone into this album, the band's fourth. Any Old Love marks another accomplished entry into the growing catalogue of one of Australia's best rock bands.

LABEL: Plus One

RATING: 4.5 stars