So, I just finished voting in Triple J’s Hottest 100 Australian albums of all time and I’m mentally exhausted. I always struggle with top 10s in music because, for me personally, it’s like singling out my favourite family members or choosing one sole best friend and awarding them a prize – I just have so many that I like I can’t possibly decide! However, after much pondering and hair pulling, I ended up settling with the following.
Powderfinger -Internationalist
My mum brought home this album and started playing it on the family stereo system when I was still in primary school. I remember my parents decided to get it because they both really liked the song `The Day You Come’, which is apparently about Gough Whitlam, and they thought that was really cool or something. Anyways, I also really liked the record and decided to pinch it off them (back before mp3 players were widely available) so that I could listen to it on the CD player in my room.
Powderfinger’s Internationalist became the soundtrack to my childhood. I can still listen to the album from start to finish today. I think my favourite song would have to be `Private Man’. I’m so happy I got to see them on their farewell tour when they stopped over in Ballarat. God bless The ‘Finger.
Silverchair - Neon Ballroom
Before Daniel Johns started wearing eye-liner and writing radio-friendly pop singles, he was a mean looking bad arse armed with a don’t-fuck-with-me attitude and distortion drenched riffs (everyone has stomped around their room to `Freak’ at one point or another, right?).
Released in 1999, Neon Ballroom is a powerful album full of emotion, heartfelt lyrics and angst-riddled compositions. It was apparently coined during a period when Johns was experiencing prolonged depression and that mood seeps its way through the entire album from the melancholy opener of `Emotion Sickness’ to the rage of `Anthem for the year 2000’. It has an honesty and fragility about it that stands in stark contrast to the frequently shallow radio-friendly pomp of their most recent albums. In my opinion, it also features some of Silverchair’s strongest tracks in the form of `Miss You Love’, `Ana’s Song’ and `Paint Pastel Princess’.
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
Since I Left You was not quite like anything I had heard before the first time I listened to it. The entire album consists of thousands of samples that are interwoven into a tapestry of sound, resulting in a gorgeous album that has a distinct rhythm and flow to it. With each song gently melding into the next, it’s best experienced as a whole. However, if I were to pick out a few individual highlights I would probably go with the kooky `Frontier Psychiatrist’ or dreamlike opener `Since I Left You’. Truly beautiful stuff.
Regurgitator - Unit
Unit is another album that I can trace back to my childhood. I remember dancing around to the song `Polyester Girl’ at a friend’s birthday party, completely oblivious to the song’s mature and sexual undertones. But geez, have you listened to this album lately? It’s just a gold mine of glossy electro/rock goodness.
Regurgitator take the piss out of the whole indie-rock scene on Unit with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and infectious hooks, laden with buzzing keyboards and smoking riffs ( I still remember seeing the band perform at the Falls Festival a couple of years back when they enticed an audience of thousands to sing the chorus to `I Will Lick Your Arsehole’ all in unison. So wrong, yet so right). And there are some truly great pop tunes on the album including `I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff’ and `Everyday Formula’, which you can always put on at a party to liven things up. Gotta love a bitta the ‘Gurg.
Something for Kate - Echolalia
The first time I heard Something For Kate I didn’t like them (I think it was a song of theirs called `Electricity’ that I heard which really put me off the band. I found it too grungy for my taste in music at the time- circa 1999). However, a couple of years later I came across their album, Echolalia, which caused me to perform a complete backflip in terms on my opinion on the band.
I was initially drawn to the album because I was intrigued by Paul Dempsey’s voice on songs like `Monsters’ and `Three Dimensions’. His delivery was quite dry and his lyrics were conveyed in a gruff sort of way that was nevertheless still incredibly potent. When this idiosyncratic front man’s voice was coupled with the great musicianship of bassist and wife Stephanie Ashworth alongside drummer Clint Hyndman, I think the trio were able to write a true Australian classic in the form of Echolalia.
I also took the chance to interview Paul a couple of years back when he released his solo album, Everything Is True. For me, it was a great honour getting the chance to speak to him because he’s written music that I’ve grown up with and admired from a young age. He was a real gentleman during the interview too. Good bloke. Great band.
Gyroscope - Are You Involved?
I started listening to Gyroscope after a friend recommended them in high school. At first, I checked out their debut album Sound Shattering Sound, but it was their second record Are You Involved? that really got me hooked.
Are You Involved? is a great home-grown alternative rock album with some killer singles. The double whammy of `Fast Girl’ and `Beware Wolf’ at the beginning of the album really gets the listener sucked in, as both songs pack sturdy rhythm sections and infectious sing-along choruses. Later on, `Raindrops’ and `She Will Come’ show a more sensitive side to the band’s persona while maintaining their knack for coining a great melody.
I think one of the strengths of Gyroscope’s music is their ability to create solid rock tunes that are laced with elements of pop. It’s energetic but equally catchy, allowing them to appeal to a broad audience, and I think they really hit the nail on the head with this combination during Are You Involved?.
Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
Listening to Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker is almost like entering a time portal and journeying to a time of free love and hippies, when acid was the drug of choice and daisy chains protruded from music lovers’ hair. Indeed, Tame Impala are a band that have unearthed the psychodelic sounds of the past while placing their own modern spin on it in the process.
Innerspeaker is a trippy listen from start to finish, filled with luscious retro soundscapes and moments of spiralling psychodelic bliss. It’s a record that built on the momentum generated by their EP and delivered in all aspects: the song writing is tight, the vocals are clearer, the hooks are huge and the album has a great narrative quality to it that links all the songs together nicely.
Highlights include `Desire Be, Desire Go’, which sweeps over the listener with its waves of pulsating guitar fuzz and `Alter Ego’, which settles into a tight little groove early on and culminates with a smoothly crooned chorus. Triple J favourite ` Solitude Is Bliss’ would have to be the strongest cut from the album though, with its infectious pop sensibility, dreamlike lyrics and silky smooth pace.
Innerspeaker is one trip that you really need to experience.
The Presets - Beams
I think this album was the one that opened the floodgates for electro music in Australia. Prior to Beams, the Australian music scene seemed to consist mostly of rock, alternative and indie types with not much in between. However, when The Presets released Beams, it put Australia on the world map as a place that could produce dance floor ditties as well as stomping rock types. Everyone took notice too, with the romping electro pop of `Are You The One?’, `Girl and the Sea’ and `I Go Hard, I Go Home’ filling up radio station play lists everywhere. A turning point in Australian music in my honest opinion.
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
This album really reminds me of my time at university- studying all day and then partying all night.
In Ghost Colours came out in 2008, right when the whole Australian electro scene was hitting its stride, and is a great example of a well produced and well executed Australian indie/pop release. It’s full of bright, bubbly melodies and sugary electro goodness. I particularly like the opener `Feel The Love’ as it’s just such a rosy and optimistic sounding song.
I also think Cut Copy’s songs have more depth to them when compared to some other dance-orientated bands out there. While bands like The Presets and PNAU can entice a room of people to get up and start dancing frantically, their music doesn’t have the same emotional quality of Cut Copy gems like `Hearts on Fire’, which is both damn catchy but also full of thoughtful lyrics and delicately layered melodies.
Cloud Control - Bliss Release
Cloud Control’s Bliss Release is one of the more recently released albums on this list but is still equally deserving of its place in my top 10 Australian albums. It’s an absolutely cracking album with very few moments where you will be reaching for the `skip’ button. From the plodding folkish charm of `Gold Canary’ to the thunderous distorted guitars on `Meditation Song #2 (Why Oh Why)’, the album has enough musical diversity to keep the listener interested while not sounding like a disjointed collection of indie-tinged rock tunes. My favourite tracks would have to be `Theres Nothing In The Water We Cant Fight’ and `My Fear #2’. A great Australian band with a bright future ahead of them.
Australia has some great bands. I’ve shared my personal favourites. What are yours?
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