Rolling Stone Australia September 2017

September, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 85

Lance Ferguson
Raw MaterialWa r ner★★★★
Soulman shows off a love of vinyl
and collabs on inventive solo LP

“Soloproject”isabitofamis-
nomer for an album featuring
35people–fromproducers
toMCsandabandfeaturing
membersofHiatusKaiyote,
thePutbacksandtheBamboos.
But Melbourne soul impresa-
rio Lance Ferguson isn’t really
one to do things by halves.Raw
Materialfeatures re-works of
12 original tracks, which Fer-
guson cut to vinyl and handed
over to his producer mates like
NewYork’sJavelin,whoapply
house beats and synth splashes
to the lounge-y “Voyage to the
Future”. The source material is
included, so you can compare
the reworks to the OG bangers
(ifthat’swhatyou’reinto).Goes
downprettywellataparty,too.
DARREN LEVIN

Steven Wilson

To the BoneCaroline★★★½

Big-sky musing and epic

noodling from UK prog maestro

Thesubjectivenatureoftruth.

Theblissofdeath.Anepicduet

(withNinetTayeb)aboutde-

spair, co-dependency and re-

demption that makes Peter Ga-

briel’s“Don’tGiveUp”sound

half-cooked. Phew, eight songs

to go. Porcupine Tree dream-

weaver Steven Wilson thinks big

as always on album five, a spa-

cious head-trip with toe-curling

flights of uber-muso malarkey.

“Blank Tapes” is classic flutey

melancholy, “People Who Eat

Darkness” a crashing drama of

urban paranoia. God (the mean,

vengeful one) makes a cameo in

the 10-minute suite, “Detona-

tion”. All told, a ton of melody

andenergyonfacevalue,anda

lifetime between the speakers

for those so inclined. M.D.

Paul Kelly

Life Is FineEMI★★★½

Classic riff-rock return for the

bard of the burbs

Paul Kelly’s not drowning, he’s

waving. Shakespearean dalli-

ances behind him, these waters

vividly recall his surging pop-

rock fortunes of the Nineties.

That’s literally true in Linda

Bull’s full band revisitation of

“Don’t Explain”. Vika’s thump-

ing “My Man’s Got a Cold” is

such a classic Aussie household

concept it’s hard to believe it

took Kelly so long to nail it. He

sings the rest, bouncing off the

ladies’ big harmonies and Ash

Naylor’s twangsome riff s as the

rising moon on a warm summer

night and an open fi re by can-

dlelight invoke the lusty pas-

sions of everyman. All this and

a priceless sequel to Roy Orbi-

son’s “Leah”. Spoiler alert: he

lives. M.D.

Everything Everything

A Fever Dream Sony ★★★½

British indie outfi t feed off the

world’s ills on fourth album

What riches the world has be-

stowed upon Everything Every-

thing singer/songwriter Jon-

athan Higgs for their fourth

album. Between Trump, Brex-

it and the generally dire state

of politics worldwide, there is

much with which to indulge his

operatic brand of decadent pes-

simism, from knockout open-

er “Night of the Long Knives”

to “Good Shot, Good Soldier”

(“you’re a good shot, you’re a

good soldier, of all the good

things to be”). Everything Ev-

erything don’t always hit their

targets – “Big Game” drags, “De-

sire” grates – but at their best, as

in the aforementioned, they are

glorious, all circling synths, art-

ful layering and rapturous max-

imalism. ANNABEL ROSS

Meet Jen Cloher. Sure you’ve seen

her around, maybe shared some

quality time. But here’s where

you bust in on her playing guitar

naked on her bed. Her girlfriend’s

away on tour. Again. The job’s a slog. The coun-

try’s a joke. Shut the door on your way out. She’s

going somewhere with this.

The bliss, longing and jealousies of her life

with the celebrated Courtney Barnett simmer

in the present, in the wiry opener “Forgot My-

self ”, and the sweet intimacies and raw insights

of “Sensory Memory”, “Waiting in the Wings”

and “Dark Art”. The past comes in raging fl ash-

backs to Catholic girls’ school, where “to love

was to live in sin”; and to scenes of music as sal-

vation, as ecstatic as the Dirty Three in “Loose

Magic” and as heroic as the Saints and the Go-

Betweens’ in the savage “Great Australian Bite”.

Cloher’s NZ-born perspective on Australian

culture and its music industry’s navel-gazing

and compromises are brutal. Bickering mynah

birds and crabs in a bucket defi ne our politics

and sad illusions of success.

It’s the weight of three albums that make

her every truth shake the foundations of the

cosy singer-songwriter myth. Well, that and

her band, with Barnett at her back, and a voice

that’s found a new well of deeply personal reso-

nance. “It’s exhausting up here on the surface,”

she sings. Too true. MICHAEL DWYER

Oneohtrix Point Never
Good TimeWa r p★★★½
OPNscoresOSTwithanalogue
electronics, Iggy Pop

Crime-thriller flickGood Time
sets Robert Pattinson on a
downward spiral of bad choices.
The action’s matched to a synthy
score from Daniel ‘Oneohtrix
Point Never’ Lopatin, its ambi-
ent waft and arpeggiated blips
heavily infl uenced by Tanger-
ine Dream. This isn’t just the
straight score: distorted voices
and sounds from the movie are
scattered throughout, as com-
positional bridges and sound-
art devices. It crests with the ca-
thartic fi nale “The Pure and the
Damned”. It’s a striking song:
Iggy Pop’s murmured words and
weathered croon evoking both
the fi lm’s fatalism, and his own
mortality. ANTHONY CAREW

Jen Cloher Jen Cloher

Milk! Records/Remote Control ★★★★½

Jen Cloher

Bares her Soul

Clear-eyed rock reckoning from

Melbourne indie powerhouse