The last few year's experience has led me to develop a pretty assured confidence that I will be in the company of something I'll enjoy pretty much every time I'm in the company of a new record from a band hailing either from Australaia or New Zealand.
The musical output from both countries seems streets ahead of much of what comes from the UK nowadays. I could make a list but instead I'll focus my energies on this. Spacey Jane hail from Fremantle, which is unusual given the utter dominance of Melbourne as the prominent source of so much of Australia's almost production line fecundity over the last decade.
Their second album Here Comes Everybody is not on first play the kind of thing that would immediately appeal to my tastes. It's anthemic and voice of a generation in terms of its general sensibility and approach. Not a ilion miles away from Coldplay, U2, Snow Patrol, Stereophonics and a whole host of other arena merchants aiming at the back row of the arena rather than the front, as I generally prefer my bands to do.
But, but. The album wormed its way into me the longer I wemt to. Although I'm naturally inclined to be turned off by bands that project this kind of everyman emptiness, in the case of Here Comes Everybody I warmed to it the longer it played.
The name of the record was apparently the working title of Wilco's magnificent Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Jeff Tweedy apparently gave permission for Spacey Jane to use it, which strikes me as odd given that it wasn't an expression that was strictly his anywhere, having featured in James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake.
Anyway, I'm happy to endorse Spacey Jane and their record. For some reason the album was on the receiving end of a particularly vitriolic review on the part of the Australian Guardian recently. It's possibly a reaction to the series of video's and visualisers connected with the album which strike me as a concerted record label promotion for the record. It hardly seems fair to blame the band for that. Anyway, I'm happy to endorse it. The longer the record plays, the more its humanity and warmth show through. Sure it's youthful. Slightly naive and wet behind the ears. But since when has that been a criticism.
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