October, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 83
Noah Gundersen
White Noise
Cooking Vinyl ★★★
Seattle’s golden boy of indie-folk
delivers third studio LP
With White Noise, Noah
Gundersen continues his jour-
ney away from the rather anae-
mic acoustic balladry of old.
This is a step up in song writing,
production and emotional heft
that, with its touches of synth
and Gundersen’s occasional
swooning falsetto, warrants fa-
vourable comparison with Per-
fume Genius’s excellent recent
albums. “After All” and espe-
cially “Sweet Talker” best ex-
hibit this new ambition, though
less successful are some banal
attempts at sparse Josh Ritter-
ish folk that sit awkwardly on an
album that, thanks to Gunders-
en’s sonic imagination and ma-
turing sense of songcraft, other-
wise succeeds. BARNABY SMITH
Tired Lion
Dumb Days Universal ★★★★
Perth grunge-pop rascals hit the
mark on charming debutTired Lion possess a spark that
lends Dumb Days a whirling
dervish hyperactivity as gui-
tars crack and fi zz, with defi ant
tales of wayward youth, misad-
venture and melancholy sink-
ing in during its refl ective mo-
ments. Singer-guitarist Sophie
Hopes is a Karen O-channelling
talisman, lending their snotty
punk (“Behave”), sugary grun-
ge (“Camp”) and captivating al-
most-ballads (“I’ve Been Try-
ing”) a deep, dangerous delicacy.
With Violent Soho’s Luke Boer-
dam producing, there’s an ever-
present Pixies-via-Pumpkins
quiet-loud-crash dynamic that
feels like the type of headlock
that starts off as a joke... but
can quickly turn into something
not so playful. J.C.Odesza
A Moment Apart Pod/Inertia
★★★
Pretty but personality-less
off ering from Seattle electro duoOdesza launched their For-
eign Family Collective label to
support upcoming artists, but
their third LP leans more heav-
ily on higher-profi le collabora-
tions such as Regina Spektor on
ethereal heartache ballad “Just
a Memory”; W YNNE and Man-
sionair on “Line of Sight”, recall-
ing both Sohn and Flume; and,
most curiously, soul singer Leon
Bridges on “Across the Room”.
Australian singer-songwriter Ry
X feels a more natural fi t on the
emotive “Corners of the Earth”,
complete with angelic choir and
urgent percussion, but tellingly,
it’s Odesza’s unaided instr umen-
tals (“Late Night”) that provide
the album’s most dynamic, com-
pelling moments. ANNABEL ROSSChelsea Wolfe
Hiss Spun Sargent House
★★★★
Wolfe’s sixth studio LP is her
best and heaviest to dateIf Chelsea Wolfe’s last album
welcomed us into her abyss,
Hiss Spun plunges headfirst
into its apocalyptic epicentre,
a bewitching brew of chaos and
beautiful darkness. Where the
California-born artist once lin-
gered among eerie melodies and
folk guitars, she holds nothing
back on her heaviest, doomiest
album yet. Thunderous drums
(“Spun”) and guitars, distort-
ed to oblivion (“Welt”), off er ca-
tharsis through violence. Even
its lightest moments (“Two Spir-
it”) are far from frail or thin. It’s
this balance that makes Hiss
Spun so arresting; cataclysmic
walls of noise perfectly ballast-
ed by Wolfe’s rich, spellbinding
vocals. LAUREN ZIEGLERHitchhikermarks a pivotal mo-
ment in Neil Young’s ongoing se-
ries of archival releases: Instead
of a live classic-songs set, this is a
buried-treasure mother lode – 10
newly unearthed studio recordings, cut in one
acoustic session, on August 11th, 1976. Young
wasn’t exactly swept up in the country’s bicen-
tennial spirit at the time; now grouped togeth-
er rather than spread out over later records, the
violence-drenched “Powderfi nger”, “Captain
Kennedy” and “Pocahontas” feel like pointed
rejoinders to the whitewashed history off ered
up during America’s 200th birthday.
He’s in peak lonesome-guy mode on the nev-
er-released failed-relationship chronicle “Give
Me Strength”. Another previously unheard
song, “Hawaii”, is a spooky mysterious-strang-
er ballad. The take of the Nixon-sympathising
“Campaigner” here includes a newly relevantverse deleted from the version that appeared on
Decade: “The speaker speaks, but the truth still
leaks.” The major fi nd is the scruff y title song,
an unblinking depiction of fame, “neon lights
and the endless nights”, paranoia and cocaine.
Young eventually released it on 2010’s Le Noise,
bathed in electric guitar and with a verse about
being thankful for his kids. There was no one
to comfort him in ’76: It’s a journey through the
past, but far darker. DAVID BROWNESløtface
TryNotToFreakOutCaroline
★★★★
Norwegian punk-pop quartet
make party music with bite
ThemembersofSløtfacewere
barely born when Bikini Kill
disbanded, but the group have
clearly been doing their riot grrrl
research. Although singer Haley
Shea is the only female, Kath-
leen Hanna’s ‘girls to the front’
creed is administered persua-
sively via reeling riffs, explo-
sive d r ums, Shea’s pure voice – a
blend of pretty and gritty – and
a healthy dose of bratty humour.
“Why didn’t anybody warn me
about the dangers of playing ‘I
am never’ with prosecco?/Some-
thing’s defi nitely bubbling up,”
Shea sings on the infectious “Pit-
ted”, while sweet duet “Slumber”
proves they can sustain a tune on
more than sheer energy. A.R.
Neil Young Hitchhiker Reprise ★★★★½
Neil Young’s
Lost Treasure
Young releases a darkly powerful
‘lost album’ recorded in 1976