Mabels - Scenes From A Midday Movie

  by John Clarkson

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

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‘Scenes from a Midday Movie...’ takes it name from a line on the album’s third track ‘Sitting in a Cyclone’ in which its narrator sits listlessly in front of a television, in the midst of what seems like clinical depression, and claims that ‘I don’t cry easily/Scene’s from a midday movie/only thing guaranteed to move me’. The title is, however, all encompassing. Each of the eleven tracks on this well constructed and finely detailed album tells a story, some obviously deeply personal and introspective, others imagined and broader in theme, or sketches out an event, and is the musical equivalent of a ‘real life’ drama or film. The Mabels, like their other ‘Candle Record’ label mates ‘The Simpletons’ and ‘The Lucksmiths’, specialise in semi-acoustic, and thought-driven, literate pop. Originally a folk trio ‘The Troubadours’ from Lismore in mid- Eastern Australia, the band, consisting of frontman and principal songwriter Anthony Atkinson, guitarist Warwick Loeb and bassist Kim Parker, moved to Melbourne in 1996 and changed their name to The Mabels when they expanded into a quartet with the recruitment of drummer, David Kneale. Their first record ‘Caravan Park Girlfriend’, a six track EP, was recorded over a Bank Holiday weekend five months later in early 1997. ‘Scenes from a Midday Movie’, their debut album, followed at the end of last year and, with its melodic, honeyed sounds, is reminiscent both of ‘Belle and Sebastian’ and Simon and Garfunkel, and also of the band’s fellow Australians ‘The Triffids’ and ‘The Go Betweens’ . ‘44 Reasons for Leaving’, the opening track, with its gently, jangling guitars and a swelling vocal harmony at the end, uses the humdrum realities of scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, and days spent mowing the lawn, to describe a retired couple who, after forty four years of marriage, have long since grown weary and disillusioned with each other. The next song, ‘Tennis Players Girlfriends’, is of a similar musical style and equally biting, and is about a young man who has become a professional tennis player, not out of any grand passion for the sport, but simply because he thinks that it will ensure him a better-looking girlfriend. The soft flow of ‘Ecstatic’ , is however, less waspish and, flavoured by nipped , light bursts of trumpet in its chorus from Loeb, captures, with a scrutinous and meticulous eye for small detail, the first glowing days of a romance. ‘By the River’, the most melodramatic track on the album features special guest, James Lee, on pedal steel guitar, and, a country-styled murder ballad, sympathetically captures the plight of a boy who knows he faces the electric chair when the girlfriend he may or may not have killed is found dead at the edge of a river. In its second half ‘Scenes for a Midday Movie...’ picks up slightly in sound and also becomes more experimental. ‘Everything’s Different’, one of the most strident songs on the album, uses forceful guitarwork, heavy rolls of drums and a catchy, vibrant tune to mask a passionate, but anguished lyric about the collapse of a love affair. The stripped back, but surprisingly full sound of ‘Filipino Bride’ in contrast, however, abandons conventional instrumention almost entirely. Relying only on a solitary acoustic guitar, Parker on piano accordion and a brief clopping banjo at its end, it is reminiscent , with slightly stretched and earnest vocals from Atkinson, of Billy Bragg, who Darren Hanlon, who has co-produced the album with the band has, as a one-time member of The Simpletons, played support. At one level a workers’ anthem, at another level an unusual love song, it has its proud, but lovelorn narrator dreaming of one day finding love through a mail order marriage, although he knows that this will arouse racism and hostility in his town. The breezing ‘Small Town Country Queen’ takes the theme of small community disapproval a stage further, and with Lee back on pedal steel, is another country-edged tune. It has a bittersweet Parker, in her only full vocal turn on the album, as a defiant former cheerleader who it is said has slept her way through the entire town’s football team, much to the horror and chagrin of the local mothers club who fear that their men are next on her list . The last track , the mysterious ‘Our Last Photo’, seemingly about a death, is slow, mournful and fragilely beautiful and, with an extended colliery band style trombone solo from guest Adam Hutterer, brings the album to a poignant and moving close. This is powerful and emotional record. Never less than intelligent and thought-provoking, it is able to both tug at heart strings, and also when it is necessary to be more stinging. Each of its landscapes and scenarios, it paints evocatively. Frank and passionate, and surprisingly polished for what is only a debut album, it is in an individual work, and one which, under rather than over stating its case, is often quietly awesome.

Track Listing:-

1 44 Reasons For Leaving
2 Tennis Players Girlfriends
3 Sitting In A Cyclone
4 Ecstatic
5 By The River
6 Everything's Different
7 Filipino Bride
8 Seasoned Forgiver
9 Redeemed
10 Small Town Charity Queen
11 Our Last Photo

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