Yesmen - Prosody

  by Andrew Carver

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

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'Prosody' starts with a down-tempo riff, a chorus of “ahhs” and the declaration of “I live in limbo land.” Then it’s right into a searing Detroit style dual-guitar-rock album of the type that Australians seem to be able to turn out in their sleep. This is one of the better ones. And one of the most depressing. Lyrically this is a gloomy album. Back when Sean Greenway was a teen punker playing guitar with God, the songs were mostly about sex. A lot of rock’n’roll albums these days seem to feature songs solely about girls, booze and cars (or all three at once); 'Prosody' has songs about lousy 9-to-5 jobs, social isolation, friends lost to death and normalcy, small-time hoods and betrayal. Plenty of rock’n’roll songs have been written about these subjects, but it’s impossible to escape the realization that Greenway is singing about what he knows. The album is dedicated to Mick Weber, guitarist for the Seminal Rats and Hoss, who died in 1999, aged 32. The most poignant moments come in the song 'Fawlty Rocks', where Greenway sings about crossing the name of a dead friend out of his phonebook, and hoping it’s the last time he does so. Sean Greenway died of a heroin overdose this January. Musically, the album fits alongside other Oz rock monster contemporaries like Hoss, Bored and the Powder Monkeys. Fans of any of these groups will want to pick this album up. Admirers of Asteroid B-612 and Brother Brick will also want it — Stewart “Leadfinger” Cunningham plays some of his best lead guitar on 'Prosody'. The production does the music every favour it can; it’s clear without being glossy, “live” but not lo-fi. Distorted as they are, the guitars never sink into the mud. The drums are in your face. It can be hard to make out what Sean Greenway is snarling about sometimes, but that’s in the great tradition of rock’n’roll singing. There’s also some good saxophone by Tim O’Dwyer on four of the tracks. He’s particularly effective on the last song 'A Dog Is For Christmas', where he accompanies the guitars as they ascend to shrieking feedback, leaving the bass and drum to thrum along before the guitars come back to crunch away. This album has a lot of bite. It hits you in the gut. It won’t cheer you up, but you’ll appreciate it if you have any taste for rock’n’roll.

Track Listing:-

1 Ma Raf Vo
2 What's Wrong
3 I Won't Run
4 World In A Room
5 Your Hanging
6 You're So Bad
7 Fawlty Rocks
8 Fratricide
9 Stripping Music
10 Acid Reign
11 Casting Stones
12 A Dog Is For Christmas

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