RVG have long been a Melbourne band of a slightly different stripe and accumulating repute. They're onto their third album now, Brain Worms. It's a record that should only see their star ascend further because it resonates immediately, even though its themes are not always what everyone seeks out for listening pleasure.
They map the trials and tribulations, the failings of the human heart. RVG have been compared to The Go-Betweens plenty since they first appeared, but it's Grant McLennan's soul at its most tortured they resemble rather than Robert Forster's quirky but as things turned out, slightly more robust worldview.
The other artist I was constantly reminded of by Brain Worms was Mike Scott of The Waterboys. Band leader Romy Vager's voice is strong. But it's also strained and unmistakably pained, as was and is the case with much of McLennan and Scott's work. Everything it seems is at stake in every second of every song.
On first play on Saturday, this was rather too intense and anguished for me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood to have my nerve-ends dragged over hot coals. Listening again on Sunday evening I was obliged to acknowledge how highly accomplished the record is. How damned good these songs are. This may not be everybody's go to record, as it demands engagement from the listener, but it's a rather formidable and admirable one. Certainly in terms of its bravery. And its tunes hold up too.
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