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MUSIC REVIEWS visit stack.com.au Thelma Plum “I need you to believe me when I say/ I find it hard to keep myself from floating away,” Julia Jacklin sings on her third album. And it’s an apt line, as there’s something otherworldly about Jacklin’s voice. On that song, Love, Try Not to Let Go, she conjures Stevie Nicks, coming across as both cosmic and compelling... and then the thundering drums crash the cruisy vibe. It’s a standout on an album that’s filled with sonic surprises and heartbreaking honesty. “I just wish my own mother was less of a stranger,” Jacklin confides. Elsewhere, she reveals: “Ever since I was 13, I’ve been pulled in every direction.” And she also ponders: “Am I gonna lose myself again?” But PRE PLEASURE finds her in total control, producing a superb set of dreamy indie folk that gently drags you in and doesn’t let go. (Liberation) Jeff Jenkins Thelma Plum has an innate ability to tell stories, and that skill has never been more present than on her new EP Meanjin. From references to the Brisbane River – or, as it’s more lovingly known, the 'Brown Snake' – to Vulture Street, to Queenslanders on a hill, the EP is full of heart; it's a sweeping ode to Plum’s hometown that feels as warm and charming as the city itself. Plum’s voice is front and centre of the EP, displaying her ethereal, striking range behind the same driving twang of guitars that defined her debut record (2019's Better in Blak). There’s an affection for Brisbane that can only come from growing up there, and on Meanjin Thelma Plum has shared that soft, often a little coy, love with us all. (Warner) Jacqui Picone PRE PLEASURE FEATURE ARTIST Ben Lee I'M FUN! It’s like this or like that. The music world is divided into two camps: those who love Ben Lee and those who don’t. He’s one of the most polarising pop stars on the planet, and his 16th album finds him in a self-reflective mood. “When I was younger, I was an a-sehole,” he admits, recalling when he was selfish and headstrong, rebellious and rowdy – A-sehole is a musical mea culpa. Then there’s The Good Stuff and Slow Down, which see Lee back in Bondi, “just a kid full of mixed-up dreams, trying to find a sound inside of me”, reminiscing about first kisses and discovering Jonathan Richman and Iggy Pop. If this were a movie, Ben Lee would be the unlikely leading man, playing a ’60s hippie who somehow finds himself transported from the Summer of Love to the age of social media. And strangely, as he points out, he was “born for this bullsh-t”, “loving everybody in a world gone wrong”. He’s also not afraid to open himself up – revealing he prefers the Stones to the Beatles – or send himself up. “I joined three cults and left them,” he notes, deadpan. This is the good stuff. As Lee attests, “there’s nothing worse than boring", and though musically this record is more Mellow Yellow than raucous Rolling Stones, it’s never boring. Hippie, trippy and occasionally a little dippy, Ben Lee is one of the greats. (Warner) Jeff Jenkins Russell Morris Ben Harper Russell Morris is like a great actor; he can truly inhabit a song, with his voice often unrecognisable from one record to the next. The Dreams of Jack Chrome is a sequel of sorts to last year’s Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz, a collaboration with his old mate Rick Springfield. That album concluded with The Darkness Waltz. This album opens with Dance with Me Now. “In order to be what we are,” the narrator tells us, “we have to come out of what we are not.” As Jack Chrome, Morris is going deeper and darker, delivering a captivating collection about identity: “Far and away the hardest thing that we face/ Is the thought of facing ourselves,” he sings. He also injects some delicious shadow into remarkable covers of America’s A Horse with No Name and the Stones’ Jumpin’ Jack Flash. (Ambition) Jeff Jenkins Singer-songwriter-guitarist Ben Harper's genre-traversing body of work now includes this thoughtprovoking, personal album, which asks serious questions about the issues currently confronting him – and all of us. With sparse musical backings that vary from song to song, Harper confronts global warming (Below Sea Level, which features a capella vocals from Harper and a gospel choir), Black Lives Matter and the urgency of addressing the wounds of slavery (We Need to Talk About It), domestic violence (Problem Child, with its "My glass is half empty" refrain), and a nod to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? (Where Did We Go Wrong). This powerful collection of songs continues Harper's long history as one of his generation's most potent protest singers. (Chrysalis) Billy Pinnell The Dreams of Jack Chrome 20 Julia Jacklin AUGUST 2022 st214_081_MusicRevs1-PROOFED-AF.indd 1 Meanjin EP Bloodline Maintenance FEATURE ARTIST The Chats Get F-cked Everything we adore The Chats for is here in abundance: urgent, bananas, fast-and-furious riffs; Aussie-as lyrics delivered with over-enunciated ocker accent (eg. “Ticket inspec-DUH!”); and a rhythm section seemingly hellbent on promoting stagediving. Majestic bass ushers in Panic Attack, with Eamon Sandwith’s increasingly fixated “panic at-tack-tack-tack-tack-tack-tack” delivery cutting through like a percussive hacksaw. Song inspirations are pretty much self-explanatory from their titles: see latest single I’ve Been Drunk in Every Pub in Brisbane and The Price of Smokes (“$1.95 a cigarette... I got an urge to punch a c-nt in the head”) – actually, counting the c-bombs within Chats lyrics would make a corker of a drinking game. So much more than the novelty band they are often mistakenly defined as, The Chats are instrumentally sound, ridiculously fun and on-point in terms of the ‘Strayan stereotypes they debunk through song – who hasn’t met the Emperor of the Beach? As their closing track attests, The Chats are “Gettin’ better all the time” – even the name of the independent record label they own, run and release their music through is a p-sser, ferchrissakes! (Bargain Bin Records) Bryget Chrisfield jbhifi.com.au 26/7/2022 11:00 am
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