You Am I - The Lives Of Others

 

Having previously broached the subject of fans unfavourably comparing new artists with the old. The same problem concerns using the artists to their back catalogue or heyday. No matter how great a front man and personality Tim Rogers is, You Am I have to evolve and this may lose some people along the way, but how many of our friends of 30 years ago, do we still bother with now?

The Lives Of Others is the band's 11th album. With that and over 40,000 Facebook followers, it may seem strange for them to be covered by I Don't Hear A Single. But we are long term admirers of Davey Lane, who is still seen as the new kid of the four as if 22 years in a band is new. But this review is more a reaction to the negative reviews over the past 10 - 15 years. 

You am I are still "Big In Australia". Although it is obviously relative to album sales now, the album hit Number 2 in the Australian Album Chart. True, their first three albums were all Australian Number 1 Albums when it took big Sales to get there. The simple truth is that after such a start, it was always going to be difficult to repeat those sales numbers. 

There's also a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario after such a fantastic first album. You either repeat the format to diminishing returns or you move into different areas and get constant grief, not for what it is, but what it isn't. You Am I are a different band now. They are far nearer the Pop side of Pop Rock, but they haven't taken the easy route of Nostalgia and that's to be lauded. 

The Lives Of Others doesn't pretend to be anything other than Pop Rock and it is a great album. Lane is taking a bit more of the vocals and you can tell which are his songs if you follow his solo career. But as always, the band is the sum of its parts. That Rhythm Section sounds as great as it did in 1995. I've played The Third Level weekly since the album's release and that may not be the best song on it.

Rogers's writing in particular seems as splendid as ever. Melodic Guitar is the keyword (particularly on Manliness). Readers Comments is very Daltrey-ish, the title track is all wonderful 60's Psych Pop and Rubbish Day is very very White Album. I'm My Own World Tonight, one of Lane's two songs, is very Jingle Jangle.

The Lives Of Others should be listened to with no preconceptions. Although, very 60's on some occasions and Brit Pop on others, it is the sound of a band reinvigorated. I listen to a lot, perhaps too much, Pop Rock and the majority of the bands I hear would do well to listen to this. Melodic Rock with a lyrical excellence that should be appreciated worldwide, not just in Australia. More than well into their third decade, You Am I sound as keen and fresh as ever.

You can listen to the album here. You can buy the album everywhere. You can find out more about You Am I here.

.............................

Davey Lane - I'm Gonna Burn Out Bright

I've always been a You Am I fan, they are ensconced firmly in Indie Rock and where as that can be a bit ten a penny over here, it's less so in Australia which as always done bluesy grit rock and Power Pop and more recently singer songwriters and an edge towards Country.

There's no doubt that when Davey Lane joined as Lead Guitarist, first appearing on 2001's Dress Me Slowly, the bands sound got bigger. It also departed more from the template with hints of Psych and Power Pop at times. They had found themselves one hell of a guitarist.

So when Davey Lane's first solo album was muted around 2014, there was the usual worries of great guitarist going solo. I dreaded it would go all Big Boy Rock, particularly with his time spent in Jimmy Barnes's live ensemble. There's also a worry that band members who go solo, try to show how much talent that they've got and how they are so different than their band. Most end up over produced messes.

The resulting Atonally Young was far from that, there was variance, it was different to You Am I, but it nodded more to Beatlesque Pop and late 70's New Wave Stiff Records than Guitar Extravaganzas. Perhaps having been a one time addition to the Crowded House live band, should have given us all a clue.

Atonally Young was crowd funded and made for 15 grand and it sounded as though it cost much more. Even more impressive was a Covers Disc that was part of the Crowd Funding Project. The covers were inspired, a mixture of The Beatles, Nick Lowe, Todd Rundgren and even XTC's Earn Enough For Us.

So we arrive in 2017 with Lane's second solo album and it's even better than that debut. Overall it's firmly in the Clever Pop Department, with lots of hints of Psych and certainly far more keyboards than you'd expect.

The opener, I'll Forget Yr Name is all riff, with a chorus that hints at Supertramp's Logical Song. It's like an update on Mid 70's Pop Rock or Martin Rushent getting hold of a UK late 70's New Wave outfit. It's a stormer.




She's A Timebomb is like a psyched up Cheap Trick. A Lesson In Cause And Effect is Feeder type Brit Pop, I'll Set U Free is like Small Faces on LSD. Sinking May is pure Roddy Frame fronting The Motors.

The whole feel of the album is poptastic, wonderfully melodic. As a Psych Pop fan, I love it when the album veers that way and both the early Floyd like Komarov and the trippy Hit The City are wonderfully so.

At times, Lane's voice is very similar to The Orgone Box's Rick Corcoran, a real compliment. That really works on the brooding meandering Headley Grange, the only time the album slows down and it still morphs into a Brian May type Guitar solo.




The only downside is Witch In My Mind, which does seem forced, a Nile Rodgers type groove that is a bit plastic funk. However this is a minor quibble and after all this goodness, you'd expect the album to end on a high and boy, does it. You Had Me On Side is anthemic, it starts as a sort of lounge affair, rocks out and then ends as a soundtrack to an 80's Industrial Wasteland Film Soundtrack. A corking 8 minutes plus.

If you'd have said to me at the start of the tear that a guitarist from You Am I would be vying for my album of the year, I'd have laughed at you. As we reach the end of July, I'm Gonna Burn Out Bright is certainly doing that. It's a wonderfully cohesive effort, plenty of variance, but demonstrably melodic.

Well done that man!

The Garden Of Earthly Delights

Datura4 - Hairy Mountain

We all know that Dom Mariani is a Power Pop God, however his collaboration with You Am I's Greg Hitchcock is a much heavier affair. With Stu Loasby and Warren Hall, the quartet follow up last year's Demon Blues with Hairy Mountain.

This is more Psychedelic and a bit less Blues but there's guitar and plenty of it, riffs and solos. It reminds me a lot of Blue Cheer, very much in the late 60's early 70's department of Rock. Fuzz, Boogie, definitely groovy and when they hit that groove they stay with it. 

It's a more than welcome diversion from the synth pop that keeps coming through at the moment. Everyone wants to be Everything But The Girl if they don't want to be Nada Surf. It's a refreshing change to hear Psychedelic Rock done well, so few are.

The guitars are reaching for 11 and so they should. Heavy Mountain is a real up and at 'em album and all the better for it. You can buy it here and should.

The Wind And The Wave - Happiness Is Not A Place

The Wind And The Wave are Austin Texas's Dwight A. Baker and Patricia Lynn and they've just released this, their second album. It is a thing of beauty, Lynn has a voice that demands that you listen to it and the arrangements are wonderfully different and complement that voice.

The duo had songs in Nashville Season 4, but this is no album of the country variety. Butch Walker, produces and although we love him from his Marvelous 3 days, his productions can be a bit clappy and hey hey. Thankfully he's restrained here and concentrates on the great arrangements and THAT voice. 

Songs like Let's Forget That I Was Even Here are rooted in 60's Dusty Springfield pop, Before The World Explodes has hints of  Amy Winehouse.  Butch Walker can't resist the hand claps on Skin And Bones, a rare irritant on an excellent album. The Orchestration on the opener My Mind Is An Endless Sea and the closer, Everybody Knows is beautifully done and the country acoustic strums are in the right place throughout the album.

At last as a major has got hold of an act that isn't derivative and deserves support. The album is far more polished than the debut, but it a thing of beauty. Great Pop! You can buy it everywhere, but you can find out more about the duo and there are links to buy here.

traumahelikopter - Competition Stripe

traumahelikopter are a Dutch band (the name translates to air ambulance) and the trio are doing a great job of bringing a lighter Garage Rock to the masses. This is the band's third album, their second for Excelsior, the label of our beloved Daryl-Ann.

I'd describe them as a cross between The Strokes and one of the better late 70's New Wave Indie bands, more like the latter. They get a bit psych poppy on the likes of Pull Me Down and the title track is well on the way to Power Pop.

Largely though it's that 70's New Wave have a good time chord strumming, you can imagine them to be great live in some hot and sweaty club. The album certainly impresses, a new discovery that I'm happy to have made. Refreshing to know that the youth know their musical roots.

You can buy the album here, Excelsior are spot on at customer service. You can also buy it as a download at Amazon for £7.99.