Contains one bona fide classic, several nice tunes, and one absolute stinker. Not terrible, but light, at times drifting worryingly into Enya territory.
“I see love and beauty all around
I also see the sadness that’s embedded in your frown…”
So starts one of this years most beautiful songs…some albums are great and
some albums are good. Some albums flitter past unremarkably without anyone
noticing, and some albums are OK, with one moment of absolute magic
somewhere in the middle. It’s taken Brisbane band George six years to get
from a band formed to muck around at university to a number one platinum
selling Australian band, albeit one who can pretty much walk down the street
without anyone recognising them. Built on a strong live following and
steeped in classical training (not for nothing did they attempt the infamous
Jon Lord Concerto for Deep Purple with the BSO) it’s all about the tunes,
and Polyserena, the debut album on Mushroom records, contains one magical
moment that stands up with anything released this year, and plenty of nice
moments that float gently by without causing anything more than a gentle
murmur of approval.
The towering lead single “Breathe In Now” could have easily been another
song that slipped through the cracks, given it’s sweetness, gentle mood and
simple acoustic feel, but an amazing vocal performance from Katie Noonan
elevates it to the same musical stratosphere as some of the moments on Jeff
Buckley’s Grace (a clearly aimed for touchstone) with the songs whispering
opening building momentum to a gently spine affecting finish. It’s a magical
song, one of the best of the year, and it wouldn’t surprise you to hear that
they spent every day of the past six years working on the song and it’s
sentiments of living for the moment and taking a chance on telling someone
you love them. If blue skies can be kissed by one song, this is surely it.
Sadly (though understandably) the rest of album is nowhere near these
standards. The Midnight Oil aping,
environmentally-minded-men-against-rich-men-who-pollute-strum-along Breaking
it Slowly is awful, zipping along without passion and passing along almost
unnoticed with a terrible lyric (“The lone CEO chosen for his worth/to build
cash tiled-walls/above the smoke stacked sky”) and an unremarkable vocal
from Katie’s brother Tyrone (they alternate tracks) it’s what CD track skip
programming was made for. “Special Ones” is sweet, but could have done with
a stronger accompaniment and production, even though vocally Katie’s
performance is again impeccable. “Rain” is good, but again doesn’t stir the
passions as much as it should, while the birds in the background of the
reggae stylings of “Truth” add to one of the albums stronger tracks, a sort
of off beat twist in the middle of the calm.
Based on males in Australia who don’t cry, “Bastard Son” is Tyrone’s
strongest track, even if does overcome more self consciously bad lyrics
(“Urban enzyme digest slowly/eating crust and crouton wholly/Cut up news
with froth and frolic/hero doomed and alcoholic/not a picture prized or
pretty/burning engines in the city/not a word now could be tainted/when
ivory teeth come golden plated”) but “Strange Days” is Katie’s weakest,
another inoffensive moment to add to the collection, and neither the kids on
drugs are bad inspired “Chemical Dreams” or “Sell Out” can raise themselves
to the intended heights they clearly hoped for. “Run” is stronger,
benefiting from a relatively simple and beautiful setting, and a desire to
ape Jeff Buckley, it comes from the need to face your problems and it works
very well and would be stunning live and acoustic (as indeed it is). Sadly,
it’s likely to be skipped in the rush to get to “Breathe In Now”, track
eleven and the jewel in the crown. Even though the album should have ended
here, the last two tracks are decent enough to make up for it, particularly
“Spawn”, an epically re-worked version complete with strings that completes
a significant work in progress for the band, and provides a good touchstone
for future progress.
Polyserena is a good album, without ever hitting the kind of heights you
hoped for or the much-promised classic that was bandied around in the early
days of its formation. It would be stunning to see live and acoustic, but it
never truly ascends the “bubble bath background music” aesthetic in the way,
say, Zero 7 do. Sure, “Breathe In Now” is one of the most amazing songs of
the year, and “Spawn”, “Truth”, “Run”, “Bastard Son” and “That’s When You
Come To Me” are beautiful songs but they don’t quite grip you with full
conviction yet. Worse, Tyrone’s desire to ladle social consciousness and
“the message” onto and into his songs provides some toe curling moments and
leads to the embarrassingly bad “Breaking It Slowly” which neither fits the
mood nor provides a much needed change of pace. It’s clear that George were
aiming for the chill out stratosphere of beautiful music and magical moments
that Jeff Buckley, Morcheeba, Air and Zero 7 achieved, and at times they get
there, especially on the perfect Breathe In Now but there’s another strain
of chill out artist out there: Kenny G, Enya, Shakatak, Tanita Tikaram and
others who drift from album to album without anyone being able to tell the
difference between songs or any intended “new direction”. You hope George
build on their strengths and move towards their intended influences, and
further away from the musical moment when “chill-out” drifts worryingly near
to “inoffensive”…
