PerthZine

Tag: music

  • Album Review – Dope Lemon: Golden Wolf (2025)

    Album Review – Dope Lemon: Golden Wolf (2025)

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    One of the best albums of 2025, Angus Stone once again demonstrates he is as good a songwriter as Australia has produced. Between Angus and Julia, solo albums and Dope Lemon, he has been prolific with releases over the years. Golden Wolf is another gem, rich with catchy tunes and enough variation to keep it interesting.

    Starting things off with John Belushi, Stone and the band create a shimmering array of sounds that is big, full of hooks, and confident, and continues a line of songs referencing the rock n roll lifestyle. It’s an interesting concept and tribute to burning fast, but also doesn’t seem to romanticise the lifestyle, with lyrics “I’m going to give you all my love” and “You don’t have to go it alone” balancing the track with a message of support and love.

    This sound continues across Sugarcat and Electric Green Lambo before peaking with the title track, an excellent tune with a big stadium chorus, up there with Stone’s best work. At the age of 39 is he starting to focus more on the bigger questions in life? Escape, living your best life, and what lies after are all themes running through Golden Wolf.

    Then the album takes an interesting turn into Yamasuki – Yama Yama which is a great, unique tune – all the Dope Lemon cool but samples and loops throughout.

    A few more indie tracks, followed by another more out-there tune in Maggie’s Moonshine, with an almost trap like beat and smooth, laid-back vocals. On The 45 is catchy with great backing vocal hooks, very much in the Angus & Julia spectrum of sound, and full of on-the-road lyrics that also permeate through Stone’s catalogue.

    Ending on the instrumental, Dust Of A Thousand Stars, it’s nice to see these guys are willing to step outside the standard indie music and experiment a little, while keeping things poppy enough to hook you.

  • Album Review – Beck: Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime (2026)

    Album Review – Beck: Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime (2026)

    Odds and Ends

    Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

    Beck has released a short album mostly comprised of covers, plus a few rarities thrown in for good measure. As always, he mostly hits the mark, and who can resist an album that has Elvis, Hank Williams and Daniel Johnston songs together in one package.

    The title track has been a staple song for Beck since covering it in the early noughties and suits his timbre beautifully. Following it up with Can’t Help Falling in Love (played fairly straight) compliments the crooner as you’d expect, and he rounds out the first half with The Flamingos I Only Have Eyes for You, played with plenty of reverb and vintage feel.

    The album is separated by the only original, Ramona, a track he recorded for Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It’s a great tune that sits nicely in his noughties era sound.

    The second half consists of another eclectic mix starting with Caetano Veloso’s Michelangelo Antonioni, played with haunting beauty, followed by Your Cheatin’ Heart, the Hank Williams classic. A fine song Beck plays with straight guitar but gives it less twang, more space.

    To round out the album we get John Lennon’s Love, which he plays like it was one of his own, and the brilliant True Love Will Find You in the End. It’s a short track, and could be Daniel Johnston’s best, Beck playing it with the sweetness and delicacy it deserves.

    It’s a nice little picture of Beck’s brain and inspiration without offering much new material. Definitely worth a listen, a definite for Beck fans.

  • Album Review – Aldous Harding – Warm Chris (2022)

    Album Review – Aldous Harding – Warm Chris (2022)

    Rating: 4 out of 5.

    Having only discovered Aldous Harding, Warm Chris is her most recent release and a wonderful showcase of the vocal chameleon’s range and depth.

    Aldous has an uncanny ability to create these soft acoustic songs that suddenly morph into as catchy a chorus as you’ll hear anywhere. The opener Ennui is no exception to this, starting with a simple walking piano until finally, two minutes in, rewarding you with a brilliant hook chorus that also cuts deep lyrically (come back, come back and leave it in the right place).

    The catchiness doesn’t stop there. Next up, Tick Tock is just as catchy, and Aldous takes on an almost Lou Reed tone. Fever sounds like a stadium screamed anthem song but sung low key. The title track, gently played acoustic picking, goes further with more than one catchy line leaving you wondering which is the chorus (you make that impossible face, what a line).

    The range is astonishing. From the bubble gummy pop Passion Babe to sounding like Loretta Lynn in She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain, and an almost Nico-like sounding closer Leathery Whip, the album manages to have both enough variation to make it interesting while sounding distinctly like Aldous Harding.

    Overall it’s hard to fault what Harding does. Presenting a mysterious persona, who’s both uncomfortable and confident, it makes for intriguing listening and invites the listener to ask the question – who is she? Is she the shy quiet woman who appears awkward and uncomfortable, or is there more to this act? Either way the album is highly recommended, and give the songs a chance to kick in, you’ll see just how catchy they can be.

    ★★★★☆

  • Gig Review – Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds with support from Aldous Harding

    Gig Review – Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds with support from Aldous Harding

    Fremantle Park, Saturday January 17th, 2026 –

    Nick Cave has been good to Perth (unlike his bass player’s band who have not been to Perth since the nineties. Come on Colin, let the other Radioheads know it’s a nice place to visit), with regular visits in one form or another. Last time he toured with the bad seeds was about a decade ago, so the audience appeared itching and ready to hear how the years have aged the band (like fine wine, to use the cliche).

    Playing in the spacious setting of Fremantle Park, and down the road from my old high school, Nick and the band put on an arena sized show with giant screens and lights to boot, and boy did they bring the scale. From Wild God on this fan was blown away by the bigness of it all, and happy to see the veteran performer at his best. How age and experience conditions performers always amazes me. Every time “Bring your spirit down” popped up on the big screens the chills spread further through this reviewers body and justified the spending of the standard high ticket price on a show that left me reliving moments for days.

    Performing mostly tracks from the Wild God album, with some classics and deep cuts in between, noone in the audience seemed unhappy (apart from the usual jerks yelling requests – please audiences, never do this unless asked by the performer, let them play the show they have practiced so hard to get right). Emotional, exhilarating, it had it all. When he closed solo on the piano playing the now recontextualised Into My Arms, the emotion was hard to contain. Thank you Nick and band, and please keep coming and sharing your hearts with us.

    Before ending the review, I must make special mention of Aldous Harding, who I’ve only discovered a few weeks ago after my wife told me she’s supporting, and thank god she told me. I’ve since been absolutely blown away and obsessed with the brilliant NZ performer. Aldous walked on like she hadn’t seen a crowd of this scale before and wanted to ignore us and pretend she was in her room at home, but she brought an incredible vocal range and intensity that had this reviewer feeling chills. From tongue in cheek (Leathery Whip) to pure emotional outpouring (Horizon), she was a perfect warm up to the main show. Can’t wait to hear new material from Aldous this year, and fingers crossed a tour of her own to Perth.