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Stunning soup of Austericana. Crack a tinnie and settle down with a future classic!
This is the difficult 2nd album from Sydney troubadour Keyes and follows his acclaimed 'Meter'. He is a man who sings of his home and his politics on a canvas of the deftest musicianship and songwriting. The album notes come with a four page glossary that explains all the references in the slang and the peculiarities of Aussie lingo. This is deliberately Australian and yet more than anything it conjures up the sense of New Jersey's finest and we are not talking Bon Jovi here. The Boss is all over the first three tracks. Kitchen sink lyrics about everything that makes everyday life what it is, the guitars and the rhythms tight and snappy and tellingly the vocal delivery which kicks from the back of the throat. Sort of Springsteen meets Warren Zevon.
Track 4 'Sideshow Alley' ploughs the same furrow but becomes overly bombastic. 'Peter Cottonball' starts as a Willy Vlautin monologue and develops into a dark, guitar led exploration of escape and lost identity, guilt and despair - lovely stuff. 'At the Speedway' a Stones loping riff, a duet and a damaged love story.
This album has everything that any fan of quality song writing could want. Vocally all the boxes are ticked; world weariness, exuberance, anger, joy and pain. Musically the shades are somewhat predictable in places but still affecting.
Perry Keyes has produced a great album that could, with repeated listening, become a classic particularly in his homeland but let's hope it goes global for him - it is a distinct possibility (and deserved).
Rating: 8/10
Source: Keith Hargreaves - Americana-UK website
Date:18/9/2007
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