This has been sitting in my drafts for months, but it might be relevant again with the ARIAs coming up.
Mr Tastemaker once gave me Angus & Julia Stone as an example of good, current, Australian music. Since we agreed on practically everything but this, I must figure out what the appeal of them is. For closure or something.
Julia Stone - By The Horns
Let's Forget All the Things That We Say - Those lyrics, outlined here.
Bloodbuzz Ohio - The "ma" in married, and the "hi" in Ohio, and other bleating sounds. Oh Land's cover is more interesting.
It's All Okay - Thump thump thump. Whine, whine, whine. Best one.
I'm Here, I'm Not Here - It's nice that she isn't repeating the same line over and over like with some of her older stuff, I guess. Oh wait, it just became repetitive.
Justine - Zzzzz. Repetitive. Vague. California.
Break Apart - Vague lyrics mean people can project their own meaning to them. Nothing particularly clever here. Wish You Were Here.
With The Light - Quiet electronics. Doesn't go anywhere.
I Want To Live Here - Almost a build up. Highlight.
By The Horns - This chord progression.
The Line That Ties Me - Short and sweet.
Angust Stone - Broken Brights
River Love - I could actually describe this as folk. Distinctive vocal. Instrumental build up. San Francisco. lalalala
Broken Brights - A a a a. guitar noodling. Is that the ooold man. wo-king in the dark. Repetitive. Going for atmospheric.
Bird On The Buffalo - Staccato. handclaps. a bit long, I enjoyed the minimalism for a bit and then lost awareness of it.
Wooden Chair - Whistling and clapping.
The Blue Door - Spaghetti western. vocal sounds better here. Woodwind.
Apprentice of the Rocket Man - Vocals are not annoying! Highlight. Long.
Only A Woman - All these songs are kind of slow-burny. and way too long. piano. 6.5 minutes, same lyrics over and over.
The Wolf and the Butter - Wasn't paying attention
Monsters - I think these lyrics might actually be telling some kind of coherent story.
It Was Blue - It's been 45 minutes. Come on. Echo. electric guitar with distortion. I'm tired.
The verdict: Angus wins, by virtue of almost being hypnotically minimalist. Or not as obviously whiny as Julia. If the repetitive, long songs were trimmed a bit, I might even like it.
Julia vs. Angus
