As The Fauves celebrate their 20th anniversary, who more appropriate to man the controls of their new album than an Australian rock luminary, Midnight Oil's Jim Moginie? As the bloke responsible for keeping the 'Oils to the left of the musical centre, Moginie seemed ideal for encouraging The Fauves' gleeful sense of subversion. As it turns out, he and the band kept things pretty straight - but perhaps it's for the best, because to do otherwise might have obscured what has become in the past decade one of the band's true strengths: their knack for the melody that doesn't wear out its welcome. On present evidence, they're just getting even better at it. With Doctor pulling his weight again in the songwriting department, this new record piles on gorgeous pop moment after gorgeous pop moment.
The Fauves' other strength is leader Andrew Cox's ability to take a metaphor and run with it, a talent that continues to shine bright here. As the band reaches middle-age (dealt with typically caustic humour on Fight Me: I'm 40), Cox's lyrical focus has moved from his usual pisstakes on the foibles of human behaviour to casting a wry and self-mocking eye over relationships.
In short, this is yet another consistently good Fauves album. If anything it might seem like it's stuck on a mid-tempo setting-but at the same time its impossible to throw any of these songs out. Probably the only thing missing is the out and out hit single of the sort that kept the band in the national conscience in the mid-late 90s. That, however, is probably a blessing in disguise. The 'novelty song' tag they tend to attract does them an injustice; what The Fauves deserve is wider acknowledgement for writing fantastic, guitar-oriented pop songs. Start with this record and work backwards.
Peter Strelan
As The Fauves celebrate their 20th anniversary, who more appropriate to man the controls of their new album than an Australian rock luminary, Midnight Oil's Jim Moginie? As the bloke responsible for keeping the 'Oils to the left of the musical centre, Moginie seemed ideal for encouraging The Fauves' gleeful sense of subversion. As it turns out, he and the band kept things pretty straight - but perhaps it's for the best, because to do otherwise might have obscured what has become in the past decade one of the band's true strengths: their knack for the melody that doesn't wear out its welcome. On present evidence, they're just getting even better at it. With Doctor pulling his weight again in the songwriting department, this new record piles on gorgeous pop moment after gorgeous pop moment. 
