| Print |

Written by Laura Hamlett Sunday, 23 June 2013 17:45

 This new release is soothing, often ethereal, and sometimes gently prodding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Steve Kilbey sings, it feels like being wrapped in a warn sweater when the chill of fall is in the air. This collaboration with Martin Kennedy—the pair’s second—is no exception. From the first track (“I Wouldn’t Know”) to the last (the aptly named “Finale”), the album feels familiar and classic—albeit a tad too mellow if played in the foreground rather than the back.

Just as you’d expect from the former frontman for Aussie legends The Church, this new release is soothing, often ethereal, and sometimes gently prodding. With a quietly relentless guitar line, “Lorelei” is equal parts shoegazer and don’t-leave-me love song. “Knowing You Are in this World” stays close to the ground, and the track that follows, “I Find,” shimmers and simmers. Kilbey’s whispersmooth voice is even airier on “East Side West Side.”

On “A Better Day,” Kilbey acknowledges that, although today may not be perfect, his thoughts keep him optimistic, looking forward. The guitar line that begins “Brother Moon Sister Sun” is to the point and captivating, a fitting lead-in to the soft waves of music that follow. As its title suggests, “Can’t Get Free, smolders with desires unfulfilled, making it easily the best track on the album. With “Finale,” You Are Everything slips psychedelically back into the dark ocean from which it came, ready to lap the shore again at next listen. B- | Laura Hamlett

RIYL: The Church, Pink Floyd, ’90s shoegaze