Paul Kelly’s poetic flight of fancy

Paul Kelly collaborates with James Ledger and others from the classical music world for “Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds”.

Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds composers Paul Kelly and James Ledger. Picture: Kate Pardy

CLASSICAL/POETRY

Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds

Paul Kelly and James Ledger

Decca

4.5 stars

Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds.

This album brings together the esteemed poet-minstrel Paul Kelly with Perth-based composer James Ledger and the Seraphim Trio, led by the ubiquitous pianist Anna Goldsworthy. Since its debut at the last Adelaide Festival, the show has appeared in various capital cities to capacity audiences and stellar reviews, and was recorded in Sydney in April. More an ACO-Richard Tognetti or Topology-Robert Davidson collaboration, some might think, but here all the disparate elements seem to gel and work well together. The album’s title is a tad misleading: yes, there are 13 settings of bird-poems by a diverse range of poets, including Hardy, Hopkins, Keats and Australians AD Hope, Judith Wright and Gwen Harwood. In addition, there are three instrumental miniatures by Ledger, an agile composer who is heard on electric guitar, percussion and synthesiser. On various tracks we hear the winsome vocals of Alice Keath, who also plays banjo and autoharp. Together, the 16 tracks make up just under an hour of music. What binds it all together is that famous sandpaper-and-gravel voice of Paul Kelly, whose singsong delivery lurches between poetry reading and driving hard rock. It’s punchy verging on the raunchy, as are the songs themselves, with nods to folk-rock and country. Owls figure prominently in this aviary: a favourite track is the setting of Richard Wilbur’s poem, A Barred Owl, with its owl-call “Who-cooks-for you?”; Denis Glover’s The Magpies closes the album with the actual googling of magpies. Beyond these, there are no direct bird quotations; Ledger was cautious to avoid “doing a Messiaen” by indulging in direct quotation of our feathered friends. Even so, in Black Swan he does a neat take on Saint-Saens’s swan, with cellist Tim Nankervis gliding into the clouds. My least favourite track is the setting of John Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, which sees Kelly reading virtually the entire poem across eight minutes, with several layers of disconnected music heard underneath. For many, this will be the album of the year. It may well be mine, too.

Vincent Plush

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Amen by Joseph Franklin.

JAZZ

Amen

Joseph Franklin

Earshift Music

4 stars

This is not the sort of album most people would listen to for pleasure. In jazz, this is the avant-garde of today. Recorded in New York, Amen has six compositions by Australian Joseph Franklin (semi-hollow bass guitar) with Australian Marc Hannaford (piano and electronics) and Japan’s Satoshi Takeishi (drums and percussion). I am fascinated by music that is difficult to comprehend and, after repeated plays, I came to appreciate a strange beauty in this work. I admire the musicians’ determination to avoid playing anything that might be considered familiar. Prepared passages, often dissonant and repetitive, are juxtaposed with freely improvised sections. No matter how iconoclastic Hannaford becomes, he cannot disguise the deep-seated lyricism at the core of his pianism. Played brilliantly, this is the old avant-garde reconfigured for contemporary listeners.

Eric Myers

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Run Home Slow by The Teskey Brothers.

BLUES/ROCK

Run Home Slow

The Teskey Brothers

Ivy League Records

3.5 stars

If great rock songs are fuelled by any definitive substances, it’s typically heartbreak, grief, yearning and alcohol. “The Teskey Brothers” sounds like a whisky brand, and Josh Teskey’s voice wouldn’t be out of place hollering from a lone jukebox in a roadside pub in the back of beyond. On its second album, the group combines bluegrass, soul, and the spirit of James Brown and Willie Nelson in some divine co-mingling. This is an album of boot-stomping, clapping and swinging piano melodies that rouse even the most broken-spirited. Its sound is 60s Americana, but The Teskey Brothers are Australian; Run Home Slow was recorded in their Warrandyte home studio. Lap steel guitar, banjo, saxophone and strings meet the steady, slow drum beat that carries tracks one through 10, as these whisky-soaked country boys soundtrack heartbreak wrapped in rhythm and blues.

Cat Woods

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Perfumed Earth, by Purple Pilgrims

DREAM POP

Perfumed Earth

Purple Pilgrims

Flying Nun

3.5 stars

New Zealand sisters Valentine and Clementine Nixon describe their duo, Purple Pilgrims, as “enchantress pop”, and that evocative term proves especially apt on this second album. Not only is there a consistently hypnotic quality to these syrupy lullabies, but also a vintage feel that speaks to medieval folk songs as much as to 80s synth-pop. The pair’s narcotic repetition turns Ancestors Watching and Two Worlds Apart into unlikely earworms, couching radiant keyboard hooks and cosmic falsetto singing under a woozy veil of hypnosis. A swath of esteemed Kiwi guests appear, from drummer Jimmy Mac (Lorde) to influential guitarist Roy Montgomery. Another countryman, Jeff Henderson, lends a ghostly saxophone sheen to the glacial instrumental ambience of Delphiniums in Harmony/Two Worlds Away, while the surprisingly snappy I’m Not Saying harks back to Brill Building-era girl groups.

Doug Wallen

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Atonement by Killswitch Engage.

METALCORE

Atonement

Killswitch Engage

Sony

2.5 stars

Killswitch Engage began its career at the turn of the millennium as one of the most innovative metal bands around. It pioneered the screamed verse/melodically sung chorus dynamic now ubiquitous in modern metal and hard rock and, under the leadership of guitarist and songwriter Adam Dutkiewicz, the band was a highly sought-after live performer. On its eighth album, however, the quintet has run out of new ground to tread. The riffs are stale, the breakdowns don’t crush, the sing-scream structure is predictable and vocalist Jesse Leach’s lyrics are full of laboured cliches. On the band’s recent visit to Australia, it supported Parkway Drive —
a band Dutkiewicz mentored and recorded in the mid 2000s. If Atonement is anything to go by, Killswitch hasn’t just gone from master to student — it will be out the door to the retirement home once the next royalty cheque lands.

Sophie Benjamin

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One of those unique songs that just melts you with its atmosphere. Great lyrics — a perfect pop song.

02. Heaven The Rolling Stones

Side two of Tattoo You is a treasure. I always love the Stones, and can still find the occasional nugget I’d forgotten about.

03. Candy May Alex Cameron

This one puts a spring in my step. Been on high rotation all year.

04. The Rainbow Talk Talk

I’ve been digging through the catalogue since Mark Hollis left us. It’s an inspired world to get lost in.

05. Straight to Hell The Clash

I rarely tire of The Clash, who had such a spontaneous creative burst across all their records. I still hear new things in them.