Havens Dumb

After half a decade away, Augie March return with an hour-long fifth album. NICK ARGYRIOU has mixed feelings about it.

Ballads focused on structure and phrasing, made by seasoned musicians who are meticulous in the art of songcraft and melody: that’s always been the Augie March way. Lost to the musical world since 2009, the poetic beast resurfaces with Havens Dumb, yet another protracted album (14 songs long) filled with all the trademark Glenn Richards elegiac barbs and threads of narrative that many songwriters would murder to possess.

So why is it, then, that the overall album’s worth of songs leaves one with an even greater sense of numbness? This is a good record, secure and agreeable, but far from living dangerously, with no sign of the manic vehemence of a Strange Bird or the hooks and melody of the epic 2000 debut, Sunset Studies.

It must be said that the record does crack in with an auspicious jerk with the first four tracks, the aptly named ?AWOL?, ?After the Crack Up?, ?Bastard Time? and a ?Dog Starved? forming a revitalising reentry into the Australian musical landscape. All tunes tapping into the grunt of previous records (Moo, You Bloody Choir, Watch Me Disappear and even Richards? 2010 solo cut, Glimjack) while ?Hobart Orbit? clarifies Richards? new life in Tasmania away from the rough and tumble and excess booze- and cigarette-sucking life of Melbourne. The band’s instrumentation sways and drifts and offers a deft sonic touch as the leader continues on his merry wordsmith way in honouring poets Dylan Thomas, Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney.

Yet, from this point forward, the album feels peculiarly non-offensive, with Richards working things out and switching between dreamy, conventional, genteel and strangely static – a term never used for an outfit of this calibre. Surely this shouldn’t be so, but the evolution of music stops for no artist. The two-minute ?The Faking Boy? mines Wayne Coyne territory with Richards off on some spiritual sojourn. ?Definitive History? works a Danny Elfman-esque score; a simple and considered psalm emanating where the enveloping theme of ?Villa Adriana? provides yet one more exercise in Richards? choral foray but is buried in this murky midway mark of the album where nothing is at it seems and is perhaps weighed down by expectation.

A return to form/cohesion comes via the trippy ?Millenarian’s Mirror?, which channels a strangely workable Eagles-meets-Midlake feel. ?Sailing to the Moon? is trippy and ?Never Been Sad? long, desolate, forsaken and close to seven-and-a-half minutes long, while closer ?The Crime? casually enters with the band talking sonic logistics in ?real time? with a live outtake ambiance sneaking through. From here the ensemble daintily zephyrs before Richards exhales one big, relieved sigh that could be construed in one of two ways: content to be back in the fold with his original band, or unsettled and wondering whether the decision to resurface as Augie March was worth the gamble.

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##?Havens Dumb? is out now through Dark Satanic/Caroline. Upcoming gigs below.

Wed, Oct 29 – Howler, Melbourne, VIC [sold out]
Thurs, Oct 30 – Howler, Melbourne, VIC [sold out]
Fri, Oct 31 – Howler, Melbourne, VIC [sold out]
Sat, Nov 1 – Howler, Melbourne, VIC
Sun, Nov 2 – Howler, Melbourne, VIC