Music Reviews - March 2013

One heck of a busy lady

From collaborating on a new dance work with the Sydney Dance Company to touring her new album, we’ll be hearing a lot from Sarah Blasko this year.

Sarah Blasko is one of Australia’s classiest purveyors of lush alternative pop in recent years. With her third platinum-selling solo album, 2009’s As Day Follows Night, she won the ARIA award for best female artist. Then, she joined forces with two of her friends and peers, Holly Throsby and Sally Seltmann, for an artful (and gold-selling) album under the name Seeker Lover Keeper.

Blasko has basically earned the right to rest on her laurels. If anything, however, she has been working harder than ever of late, and pushing the boundaries of her creativity to boot.

Exhibit A: having had to wrangle orchestras for her first, ambitious project as producer, exquisite fourth solo album I Awake, for the associated tour she will perform in each city with a local symphony orchestra. “Yeah, it’s gonna be quite a challenge,” says Blasko. “I’ve definitely had artistic aims with the whole thing but, to be perfectly honest, probably ever since I saw 'The Sound Of Music' when I was a child I always wanted to work with an orchestra!”

Exhibit B: she is helping compose the music for a new Sydney Dance Company work by acclaimed choreographer Rafael Bonachela, costumed by fashion designer Dion Lee and titled Emergence. “It’s a real interesting mix of people’s styles … but it’s a whole other world for me.”

Another world, perhaps, but Blasko believes it is exactly challenges such as this that keep her creative juices flowing. “I feel very lucky that somehow every now and then I just get asked to do something that’s out of my zone of knowledge. I do find these things kind of refreshing. You get back into your own stuff after that and inevitably it changes what you do.”

I Awake is out now. Sarah Blasko is touring the album nationally until February 23. Emergence plays at the Sydney Theatre from March 1–23. Visit www.sarahblasko.com.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

II (JagJaguwar/Inertia)

Whatever happened to the concept of putting some thought and creativity into album titles? This mesmerising Kiwi trio has no excuse, especially given the follow-up to their fantastic eponymous debut has songs with names as good as its deep-fried psych pop, such as “So Good At Being In Trouble” and “Swim And Sleep (Like A Shark)”. Marked by hazy grooves, cool guitar lines and effects and Ruban Nielson’s spaced-out vocals – plus some great horns on “One At A Time” – II is smoother than its predecessor but no less loveable. 4/5 stars.

Big Boi

Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumors (Def Jam/Universal)

Now that’s an album title. The less-celebrated half of OutKast, Antwan “Big Boi” Patton remains far more musically productive than cohort André “3000” Benjamin. Given the number of collaborators to share the load on his second solo album, that’s unsurprising – but what is impressive is the amount of musical ground covered. Furiously modern hip-hop is front and centre, of course, with Big Boi’s technical finesse as a rapper shining, but rock, electro and pop flavours give the album valuable depth. Oh, and ignore terrible final track “She Said OK”. 3.5/5 stars.

Various Artists

Late Night Tales: Friendly Fires (Central Station)

The Late Night Tales compilations have had some of the most exciting artists around, from MGMT to Metronomy, foraging in their record collections to create some sublime mix tapes. Brit indie-dance trio Friendly Fires do the brand proud with theirs, all soulful electronica (including their own pulsating cover of Eberhard Schoener’s 1978 collaboration with the Police “Why Don’t You Answer?”), psychedelic indie-rock and atmospheric pop. If all that isn’t enough, it ends with a terrific piece read by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch. 4/5 stars.

ON TOUR

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

Has there been a more consistent Australian rock band than Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds? From 1984 debut From Her To Eternity to 2008’s Dig, Lazarus, Dig, every album they’ve released has been a bruised or bruising classic. Witness No. 15, Push The Sky Away, performed live mere days after its release, from February 26 to March 9. Visit www.nickcave.com.

Garbage

Garbage was one of the biggest alt-rock acts around before they went on sudden hiatus mid-tour in 2005. Their comeback album Not Your Kind Of People didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but, on past evidence, their return to the live arena should. They’re touring nationally as part of the ferocious Soundwave Festival from February 23 to March 4. Visit www.garbage.com.

ONE TO WATCH
High Highs

Recently home for the east coast leg of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Sydney duo High Highs made Brooklyn, New York, their home to hone their atmospheric, indie-tronic pop. By the time you read this you’ll be able to swoon at the results of their debut album, Open Season – we’ve been making do with its title track, which is also on the group’s blissful self-titled EP. Visit www.highhighs.com.