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Huckleberry Swedes
Suburban Dreaming
Vitamin
It’s always a bit of a gamble getting handed a local release to review. On the one hand I certainly want to help out local acts, but if an album isn’t really to my liking, it puts me in a difficult position – I can’t lie and say it’s good and I don’t want to annoy anyone by saying I don’t like it (Adelaide is, after all, a small town). Which is why it’s such a pleasure to be handed a release like ‘Suburban Dreaming’, because, with no bias or incentive whatsoever, I can say that it’s a wonderful, beautiful, stirring and emotional debut album and that Huckleberry Swedes are one of South Australia’s bands to watch.
It all kicks off rather innocuously with Dust Storms Falling, opening with gently strummed acoustic guitar and mellow piano before Troy Loakes’ impassioned voice peals forth from the speakers. Gradually the track builds up to incorporate gentle mandolin melodies, beautiful harmony vocals and a truly stirring string section. The best thing? It’s only the first of many highlights from these talented polymaths, who combine elements of alt-country, folk, gospel, blues, soul and every type of music which is good for what ails you. The bluesy Will My Heart Stay On Track should certainly be a contender for a single, with its funky blues guitar riffing and strong backbeat. Again, Loakes’s singing is right up front, delivering a gritty, soul-style vocal which turns heart-wrenching in the extended coda, combined with buttery harmony vocals.
It’s not all melancholy, though - Huckleberry Swedes also exceed at more upbeat material, with We Farm Our Love based around a rather delightful mandolin riff, and the jaunty Cast A Line, a countrified ode to the simple joys of fishing. At all times the arrangements are solid and well thought-out, and the palette of acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, subtle drums and fruity Hammond organ, with flourishes of pedal steel, dobro and strings, is simply joyous. The warm, organic and very live feel which producer Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil) has created fits the material and the players to a tee, and is never over-complicated, never too shiny nor too raw.
Closing track Baby’s Gonna Lift Me Up is almost perfect, combining a melancholy feel with a life-affirming vocal melody of almost gospel intensity. It’s a slow burner with an uplifting finish. Suddenly, ‘Suburban Daydreaming’ is over, and you’ll find yourself reaching for the play button again, if only for the big grin that it’ll surely put on your face. Track this down, listen to it, love it, listen to it again – there is nothing else to add.
Patrick Lang
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