PerthZine

Author: Paul B

  • Album Review – Stella Donnelly: Love and Fortune

    Album Review – Stella Donnelly: Love and Fortune

    Stella

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Stella Donnelly is back with more polish and songwriting maturity on Love and Fortune. From the outset the album sets a standard and doesn’t flinch, nor does Donnelly with her candid, confessional storytelling.

    Backed by an excellent band, the album is tight, well produced and navigates the full range of Stella’s arsenal – from catchy guitar pop to electronic synth driven exploration, often in the same song.

    Opening track Standing Ovation shows this in full force. Honest lyrics about teen love over a ‘verby synth hook, starting out slow dance before suddenly kicking into the jangly pop Stella is known for.

    The album continues the balance of guitar driven, synthy introspect throughout. Being Nice, clocking in at 1:41, is short, sweet, poppy, and full of lyrical sharpness. Feel It Change pangs with relationship problems (“I love you baby, but I’m scared to be near ya”) backed by catchy guitar licks.

    Folky a cappella follows with Baths, another short one at 1:48. Memories of family life, with the smallest hint of synth swirling in the background.

    In Please Everyone she sings “I offered up my shoulder you could lean upon, but you climb right on”, then takes a turn reversing who’s leaning on who; it’s quality, soul open songwriting.

    The best part of the album comes in the gentle but still catchy combination of Ghosts and Love and Fortune. Ghosts is a gorgeous drifting tune with Stella’s vocals backed by an infectious piano lick.

    I can imagine a crowd singing along to the title track. It creeps up on you and once she starts singing “Love and fortune, wait in the hallway to greet you” you are hooked. It’s a soft track so we’re not talking anthem singalong, more like everyone swaying along and singing with all their hearts.

    The album closer, Laying Low, is a highlight of Donnelly’s juxtaposition of sweetness and slightly unstable melodies. A synth riff driving the verses creates that tension, but Donnelly’s vocals ground the song and lead into her classic style of chorus.

    Love and Fortune is an excellent record and a sign of an evolving artist, letting it all out as she has always done, while also allowing us all in to share the catharsis in great, catchy indie pop music.

  • Classic Movie Review – Fever Pitch (2005)

    Classic Movie Review – Fever Pitch (2005)

    Farrelly Brothers Do Baseball

    Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

    Pitching closer to the traditional romantic comedy, Fever Pitch is a fairly harmless movie held up by good casting. A surprising turn given we are talking about the best gross out director duo of the last 40 years or so.

    Jimmy Fallon plays Ben, a real nice-guy schoolteacher with one catch – he’s a mega Boston Red Sox fan. Ben meets Lindsey (Drew Barrymore in her super sweet era) who also has a catch, she’s a high-flying businesswoman dedicated to her career.

    That’s about the gist of it. Ben has a group of also-fanatical baseball fan friends. Lindsey has her high rollers. Worlds collide, Lindsey gets into the baseball but at the expense of her work, and Ben gets upset when he goes to a party with Lindsey and misses the greatest comeback win in Red Sox history. The Red Sox head towards what could be a miracle year, and we have the classic romantic comedy setup.

    Being a Farrelly Brothers movie, one might expect a more outrageous comedy (There’s Something About Mary, need I say more), this is not that kind of movie. It still has some funny moments, and a few reminiscent of the gross-out slapstick the brothers have become renowned for, but it leans on the heartwarming story angle. The funniest moments come from the back and forth between the two leads.

    Pleasant enough, and despite not quite being the movie star type, Jimmy Fallon is ultra likeable with his puppy dog qualities. Between him and Barrymore they make it an easy movie to like, even if it does fall short of the mark of being a classic.

  • Single Review – Gabriella Cohen: Thrills (2026)

    Single Review – Gabriella Cohen: Thrills (2026)

    Gabriella Cohen is back with the first track from her upcoming album From the tropics.. to the desert. .and then back again, delivering her usual vintage pop melodies alongside soft-picked guitar and sweet backing vocal harmonies.

    Cohen has always had a great pen for catchy tunes, and in her laid-back loose way captures a sound somewhere between sweet and strange. It really hooks the listener in; makes you wonder what’s going on inside her head.

    Thrills is a beautiful love song, asking “love, if you don’t need me then leave me alone” in what is a great chorus hook. Some might call a song like this a heartbreak song, but I find it also lifts, and through the gentle swooning harmonies we connect and understand each other, and it will all be okay. She sways between the nasally Dylan, the honest confessional Cohen (the other one, Leonard) and Beach Boys / Beatles pop. It is a nice spot to be.

  • Foody Feed – Simplest Spaghetti

    Foody Feed – Simplest Spaghetti

    I found a simple recipe for a basic fresh tomato-based spaghetti recently, using very few ingredients and quick to make. Basically just fresh tomatoes and pasta, and cooks in about 10 minutes, what more could you want. Delicious, fresh, and it is vegetarian so cheap to make.

    My-8-year old son is a little fussy when it comes to food. For example, he doesn’t like spaghetti bolognaise, even though he likes the pasta on its own and likes the taste of the sauce, he just doesn’t like them mixed. I thought I’d give it a try to combat this, and he’s a fan!

    All you do is fry some cherry tomatoes straight into a medium/hot pan with olive oil and whole garlic. Allow to sizzle for a bit then when they start to soften and are ready to break apart add some passata and season to taste.

    Give it a minute to stir in and break up the tomatoes to taste, then drop the al dente pasta straight in the sauce and mix in. Add a little pasta water for that starchy, salty goodness, let it reduce to your liking and done. Did I mention putting the pasta on the boil at the same time as doing the sauce?

    The last step before plating is adding some freshness. I used fresh basil, but I think pesto would work just as nicely. Take off the heat and mix it through while it’s still in the pan, we don’t want it cooking too much.

    That’s it, dinner cooked in about 10 minutes. Between the pasta and tomatoes, we’re talking about a very cheap meal here, maybe $5-6 Aussie dollarbucks to feed a family of 4, with leftovers.

  • Single Review – The Off Set: The Places She Only Wished That She Could Go (2026)

    Single Review – The Off Set: The Places She Only Wished That She Could Go (2026)

    The Off Set sound like a group of mates writing songs because it is what they love to do. The Places She Only Wished That She Could Go oozes with unpretentious joy. I’ll also admit I have a thing for vocal hooks involving really long sentences, kudos.

    I really want to say jangly guitars but need to work on broadening my adjectives. The song contains a lush combination of cacophonous guitars and melodic lead licks that are sweet to the ears and catchy as hell. Not sure if that works but let’s go with it. Backed up by a bouncy rhythm section, it sits somewhere in that late 80’s, early 90’s jangly indie sound pocket.

    The vocals sit nicely on top, with plenty of subtle backing bits, and some inspired lyrics like “walking down the streets of Yokohama, staring at the boats out in the harbour”, great stuff. It’s an interesting inspiration for the song subject matter – songwriter Barry Divola getting it from a photo essay about the lost youth of Japan in the lead up to the ‘64 Tokyo Olympics.

    The single launch is happening at FOUR5NINE on February 28 and the song is part of an upcoming EP release Stars Shift Over Time.

  • Gig Review – Lake Mammoth Single Launch with Sascha Ion and the Elements & Brides of Science

    Gig Review – Lake Mammoth Single Launch with Sascha Ion and the Elements & Brides of Science

    The Bird, Friday February 13th, 2026

    You can’t beat live music at The Bird on a Friday night. Thank you team Bird for keeping this venue in the heart of the city going strong.

    Launching their single Sink In, Lake Mammoth hosted a wonderful night of psych / post / bluesy rock (to name a few genres floating around), perfect for the Friday the 13th setting.

    Kicking things off to a busy and enthusiastic room, Brides of Science brought the post punk sound with plenty of synth for everyone. For a debut gig the band were tight and confident, with Niki quite the presence up front. The dual synth setup works great and is complimented nicely by some serious guitaring. I say complimented but really, it’s making an already pumping sound distort and pump harder. If this is their first show, one can assume this is only going to get better.

    Next up came some serious dirty, bluesy psych rock from Sascha Ion and the Elements. The power trio hit hard mixing jangly riff-laden tunes like Enigma, with heavier, groove driven stompers like set closer The Groove (don’t mock me for describing a song called The Groove with the word groove, and now I have said groove way too many times, great journalism). Excellent guitar work, a solid rhythm section, and Ion’s vocals slink and curl around the music perfectly. When is the next show? I’ll be there.

    With the crowd happy and having a blast, it was time for Lake Mammoth, and the band delivered some great soul influenced psych. They jammed through a stellar set consisting of plenty of reverby surf guitar, pulsating synth, and a solid rhythm section including Andrew S on the congas – nice to see an instrument you don’t see every day, being played well and genuinely enhancing the songs. The launched-single, Sink In, was a highlight, demonstrating the tightness and cool groove the band have clearly been developing for a while. Listen to the recording, highly recommended.

    Overall a great night in probably the best venue in Perth for seeing original music.

    Note to self: do not accept any offers of tequila shots when attempting to review a gig.

  • Movie Review – Cleaner (2025)

    Movie Review – Cleaner (2025)

    Die Hard, Daisy

    Rating: 3 out of 5.

    Daisy Ridley proves her action chops in this fun little Die Hard-esque romp. Don’t go in expecting anything beyond a fun popcorn movie and you will have a good time. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest director Martin Campbell (basically Bond royalty, having done Goldeneye and Casino Royale) has managed to take what could be B-grade source material and made it into something a bit better than average.

    Cleaner stars Ridley as Joey, a woman too tough for the military commandos who is now abseiling down the sides of high rises cleaning windows. Her autistic brother Michael (Matthew Tuck) has been kicked out of his care home and she is already late for work, leading to them both still being around when terrorists take over the building seeking to expose the corrupt mining giant’s dirty secrets. Someone has to save the day…

    Enter tough as nails Joey to take on Lucas/Noah (Taz Skyler) and Marcus (Clive Owen, haven’t seen you for a while), and the terrorists who you kinda feel like siding with until they start killing people. Who wouldn’t want to see these selfish jerk mining big wigs exposed? She’ll get help from both her brother and police superintendent Claire Hume (Ruth Gemmell), and the rest is fairly standard action fare.

    Again, let’s not go in expecting the movie to be some sort of high art masterpiece. There are plenty of cheesy and cliched things happening, but what do you expect from a Die Hard one-woman saviour movie. Ridley is fantastic and physical as the down on her luck hero. The rest of the cast hold things together and director Campbell clearly has enough in his repertoire to keep things interesting.

    It’s short, fun and entertaining. Watch it for what it is and you can’t go wrong. Looking forward to Daisy coming back in the sequel – Cleaner 2, Clean Harder. She’s a bona fide action superstar.

  • He Tried

    If there were a biography about you, what would the title be?

    I don’t mean in the sense of being a try-hard (is that even a term people still use), but meaning I’m pretty good at attempting to pursue enough things so I might one day hit the jackpot.

    This seems to be an ongoing theme of my ramblings – the importance of trying to do what comes naturally and brings you the most joy. If my life can be defined as that I’ll take it. He reached for the stars, maybe just wasn’t quite able to touch them, but at least he tried.

    Otherwise I often ponder how I would write my autobiography, since we are on the subject. Though my life has been relatively dull when compared to people with larger than life stories, the challenge in writing anything is to make it interesting for the reader.

    When people talk of literature this is a good way to describe it – as the art of writing in a way that is interesting regardless of subject matter, beyond simple storytelling. There’s usually something that happens which at least grabs the readers attention, but how you build to the event is equally important. What part of your life would you consider worth focusing on?

    Perhaps it would be the art of pursuing dreams and the inevitable wins and losses, or successes and failures. That would probably work for me.

  • Classic Movie Review – River’s Edge (1986)

    Classic Movie Review – River’s Edge (1986)

    Generation Apathy

    Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

    A strange movie based on a grim true story, starring some of the up-and-coming movie stars of the era, including Keanu Reeves in one of his first film roles.

    River’s Edge is about high school stoner Samson (played convincingly by Daniel Roebuck), who murders a female friend and shows his slacker friends what he has done like it was nothing. It deals with the aftermath and the apathetic reaction the teenagers have to the murder.

    Interestingly, riding high on the back of his role as Marty’s father in Back to the Future, Crispin Glover is top billed and has the most screen time playing Layne, the best friend of Samson who is obsessed with figuring out how to get the killer out of trouble. He really plays up the speed tweaking stoner, almost to parody, while Keanu just does it naturally.

    It is also the first film role for Ione Skye (billed with her last name Leitch for this movie only. The name coming from her one-name father Donovan), at 16 playing alongside Keanu at 23 – times sure have changed. She has charisma and has gone on to have a varied film career, impressive considering she had no formal training before being plucked for the role.

    Dennis Hopper rounds out the strong cast playing his usual maniacal personality. He adds some additional strangeness to the whole thing as the local drug dealer Feck. He’s an actor who often comes across as out of his mind and this is no exception. Having said that, he also shares some of the best scenes in the movie with Roebuck, delving into the apathetic attitude of the cynical, disaffected Generation X.

    This is basically what the movie is about, and director Tim Hunter deals with the subject matter well (he didn’t do much else on the big screen). From the teenagers aware of the murder and doing nothing, to the younger pre-teens running amuck with stolen cars, drugs and guns. Are they saying this is only going to get worse?

    It is shot well, the soundtrack suits nicely with plenty of Slayer tracks – at the time part of the music being blamed for everything wrong with youth behaviour – and it is a generally good film, despite the bleak picture it paints of the generation; the fact it is based around real events making it all the more poignant. Worth a watch.

  • Album Review – The Drowners: Karaoke Alone (2026)

    Album Review – The Drowners: Karaoke Alone (2026)

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Formed in 2021, The Drowners are keeping the Perth post-rock / gothic scene alive and let us all thank them for it. This city has a rich history of the style and we want to keep it going. Karaoke Alone is the debut album from the Fremantle 5-piece.

    Sonically the album has plenty to offer. Lots of pulsing synth melodies, jangly guitars & lead licks, and a driving rhythm section.

    Opener House Red, grooves nicely and vocalist Hugo Bartsch enters with lyrics bathed in fantasy symbolism; something like it’s the end of the world and we are apathetic about the whole thing. Let’s sit back and drink and pretend it’s alright.

    This riffy, gothic romanticism continues with Whole Days of Wasps. Daniel Kessler-esque guitar swirling around a pumping bass track, while Bartsch’s lyrics delve into insect-laden hell dreams.

    Dancing for a Dollar feels like the single of the album – catchy and danceable, with beautifully messy out-of-tune guitar moments. It pairs nicely with the heavier Lay Me Down – equally catchy but with more fuzzy bite.

    Things settle a bit for the middle of the album with the slower James Bond Theme and Evening World. There are plenty of lovely melodies running through ‘ballad’ section. Martin Amis and French Exit close this slow dance out and we are back the dancier tracks for the last few. Smiths vibes abundant.

    When I say dancier, let’s be clear I’m talking about either jumping or throwing yourself around, that’s the vibe here in case that isn’t obvious. Biting Nails has that drive which by now has become apparent is a signature of the band.

    Karaoke Alone finishes the album and the title track is an excellent tune that could easily fit in an ’80’s movie soundtrack. Light and airy but building to a driving chorus and finale, it ends things nicely and really sets the bar high for what’s next from the band.

    Keen to see how they develop and how that house red ages with more songwriting and gigging under their belt. For now this is good, raw post rock.