Music Reviews - November 2011

Happiness And Surrounding Suburbs

Ball Park Music (EMI)

This indie six-piece has been compared to that other great Brisbane band, Custard. It's a fair call. Both outfits lean heavily on sharp guitar riffs, spiky energy and lyrical irreverence. They also share an ear for a great tune, and Ball Park Music's debut album is full of them. "Smashed together like fresh fruit in the sun/We're not worried, we're just having fun," yells frontman Sam Cromack on "Literally Baby". It's not profound, but this is a suburb you'll want to call home.
Buy this if you like Hungry Kids of Hungary.

Megafaun

Megafaun (Fuse)

It's an atmosphere thing. The members of Megafaun used to play in a band with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and they share musical DNA. On their fourth album, the North Carolina roots rockers serve up lazy, harmony-soaked Americana with occasional detours into psych rock and folk. If you don't mind a bit of banjo with your piano and rate The Band's "The Weight" as one of music's finer moments, this is a back porch you'll want to be spending some time on.
Buy this if you like Bon Iver or The Mountain Goats.

Tori Amos Remastered

When you've sold more than 12 million albums, received eight Grammy nominations, been named one of music's greatest live acts of all time, and founded a women's charity, there's not much left on your to-do list. But for singer/songwriter Tori Amos, writing and producing her new record, Night Of Hunters, was a first. Approached by iconic classical music label Deutsche Grammophon, she penned a 21st-century song cycle inspired by select classical music pieces spanning the past 400 years. Understandably, she was nervous. "Writing a song for a film that bombs is one thing. Approaching the work of the masters is another. If I got that wrong it could be like pooping on my Manolos in front of everyone at Fashion Week."

Night Of Hunters (Universal) is out on September 23.

You heard it here first...
Andrew Lahiff A Melbourne producer who tags his expansive, slow-building electronica as "atmospheric ambient". Download his albums for free at www.andrewlahiff.com.