While we await new music from Brisbane’s finest, this might be the closest we get for a while PLUS Smashing Pumpkins, Lastlings and Models.
ROCK
Powderfinger, Unreleased (1998-2010)
(Universal) ***1/2
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READ NOW“Memories are so far gone/It’s hard to believe that it’s been so long.” Is a full-blown Powderfinger reunion inevitable? Perhaps, but in the wake of their iso performance and resulting album, the closest we can get to new music is previously unreleased material like this. That these tunes didn’t make the cut is testament to the band’s songwriting credentials, though there are similarities to the big hits such as My Happiness (Say It So I’ll Always Know) and These Days (Don’t Wanna Be Your Problem). Then there’s the Nirvana-esque verses of Rule of Thumb. But the standout is What Are You Waiting For with its pounding bass, wah-wah guitar and killer drum break.
ALTERNATIVE
Smashing Pumpkins, CYR
(Sumerian) ***
Corgan, meet organ. The Pumpkins frontman set out to make a pop record, and the result is a Pumpkins album with varying degrees of synth, from the incidental to the overwhelming. There’s the driving New Order-like bassline of Anno Satana and the fuzzy organ-like strains of Save Your Tears, while the penultimate Tyger Tyger (not to be confused with Duran Duran) is lush with layers of female vocals. At two parts and 20 tracks it does begin to overstay its welcome, but it’s an essential addition to Pumpkins fans’ collections.
DANCE
Lastlings, First Contact
(Liberation/Mushroom) ***
The debut album from Gold Coast siblings Josh and Amy Dowdle has all the confidence and sophistication of artists who are veterans in their field. Opening and closing in bass-heavy style (Deja Vu, I’ve Got You), the album chronicles the first-time experiences that shape us as humans – fitting for a first effort. Amy’s delicate vocals are the human counterpoint to the electronic rhythms that underpin the set. “Please don’t say goodbye,” she pleads on Last Breath, with its swishing effects and feelings of dreaming and sinking. Voxless interludes 9400 and AI plumb the digital ether and recall the likes of The Grid, while First Light’s waves of synth are suitably shimmering.
REISSUE
Models, Out of Mind, Out of Sight (35th Anniversary Edition)
(Mushroom) ****1/2
Models completists who’ve been making do with dodgy dubs of the cassette version of OOMOOS for decades, rejoice! The bonus tracks, and then some, are now available in all their digitally remastered glory on this anniversary reissue. Of course all the big hits are here as well, and their 12” versions, but it’s album cuts like Ringing Like a Bell and Stormy Tonight that stand out. And James Freud’s premature death 10 years ago this month lends a grim edge to songs such as These Blues and Barbados. Special coloured vinyl editions also available.