Everything?s A Thread
Whatever Brisbane’s The John Steel Singers reach for on their second album, it comes out as well-written pop, reckons CHRISTOPHER LEWIS.
Pop is not a dirty word but uninteresting pop is a hate crime. Thankfully, The John Steel Singers are making some of most interesting pop music in the country. It’s psychedelic without disappearing up its own arse, it has harmonies that Brian Wilson could smile about and there are bass lines that Stevie Wonder could sway his head to. ?Happy Before? opens with a Dick Dale riff before a bass line arrives that might be the coolest on any Australian record this year. Scott Bromiley, take a bow.
The John Steel Singers? debut album Tangalooma* was charming and nonchalantly pleasant, but *Everything’s a Thread is more complex and cohesive. Each idea has seemingly been meticulously slaved over. It has been three years since that debut and it sounds like the band have spent a lot of that time writing and jamming; the musicality is dense and daring, and its production is raw and at times untouched. The guitar riff on ?MJ’s on Fire Again?, has a few dampened notes on the fretboard, but it’s clear that their Sly & The Family Stone influences have led them to murkier, bluesy waters and it’s refreshing to hear a human element to the production that is unhampered by Pro Tools.
Robert Forster’s mentorship of the band is both apparent and welcome, and it’s not just in superficial contributions like the title of the album. It’s a certain refinement that has been lacking in past releases. Maybe it’s the fact that the band has shed some weight and recorded as a five-piece, but you can hear the clarity in execution and there aren’t many better at the craft of sharp, melodic pop than The Go-Betweens.
?They will never be the poster child for any sound or scene.?
But to overplay their friend’s hand in this album would be to severely undermine the growth of the five founding members musically and the maturity this album boasts over its predecessor. This album has 11 very well-written pop songs, bookended by a pointless 18-second intro and a self-indulgent outro that would have surely been cut had the boys not produced the album themselves.
Sonically the band is scattershot, but with five contributing songwriters what can we expect? ?There’s a Bird? could be straight out of Kevin Parker’s brain, whilst ?Common Thread? is as radio-friendly as anything their contemporaries Cloud Control or Hungry Kids of Hungary have produced. It has handclaps through the chorus, for god’s sake.
From a marketing point of view, the diversity of The John Steel Singers is their biggest weakness, because they will never be the poster child for any sound or scene. There is cohesiveness in each song and idea but not across a body of work. This, though, also serves as their biggest strength when you listen to their album; it flippantly jumps through genres, influences and palettes, and this translates to an exciting and unpredictable listening experience. ?Never Read Tolstoy? has the folky fuzz of Jake Bugg or Nic Armstrong while ?State Of Unrest? is the sound of a really well-practiced, punky, uni band – which is to say it sounds a lot like Children Collide.
?The lusher, less frenetic moments are their biggest successes.?
The band excels when they slow everything down and give their songs space. Although Ross Chandler on the kit is sadly subdued and underutilised, songs like ?The AC? and ?The Marksman? give the band an opportunity to show off their wares, without the rush to squeeze in as many hooks into three minutes as possible. The lusher, less frenetic moments on this album are their biggest successes and create their most original sound – one less indebted to who they listen to, but one that is theirs to own. It’s woozy, warm and blissed out.
Yes, it’s easy to join the dots and see that the title Everything’s a Thread is a perfect description for the intertwining, disparate musical styles within the band. It sounds like five guys jamming in a garage, rediscovering the ties that bind them together.
+