Karl Broadie - Everybody's Gold

by Malcolm Carter

published: 4 / 8 / 2004

Label: Laughing Outlaw
Format: CDS

First-rate new six song EP from Australian-based singer-songwriter Karl Broadie, which follows on neatly from his debut album, ‘Nowhere Now Here’, which came out last year

Review

After gaining glowing reviews last year for his debut ‘Nowhere Now Here’ Scots born but Australian-based singer-songwriter Karl Broadie fills in the time until his next album with the release of this six track E.P. If there was any doubt that the excellence of his debut, ‘Nowhere Now Here,’ was some sort of fluke then those doubts can be dispelled now. And surely now, with this release, Broadie must reach a wider audience and be given the recognition he so rightly deserves. The E.P. opens with a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s ‘Like A Summer Thursday’ while the other five songs are Broadie originals. That the Townes Van Zandt song is not the strongest song here says much about Broadie’s ever developing song writing prowess. Broadie does what should be done with a cover version but rarely is; he makes the Van Zandt song his own. Although there’s a lo-fi production to these songs there’s such a warm feeling emitting from this version it comes across like a Broadie original. It’s like Broadie has found his favourite old jumper and wrapped it around him to shield off the oncoming coldness of that "summer Thursday" evening. So maybe all those comparisons to Dylan, Earle and so on were not so spot on after all, maybe we’ve all missed the mark and Townes Van Zandt would have been a more fitting reference. The unique ‘croak’ in Broadie’s vocals is still there and it’s one anyone who has heard ‘Nowhere Now Here’ has come to love. Again the warmth in that rasp is more immediately acceptable than that of Dylan’s on first hearing. Broadie has also lost none of the talent he showed last time in his lyrics. “The words you wrote, kicked me in the heart one more time” opens the last song on the E.P. ‘Words You Wrote’, Broadie’s voice almost cracking up at the sadness of a relationship going wrong. The way Broadie delivers the line “I thought I’d just pull through until I read the words you wrote” is a nothing short of heartbreaking. But maybe the best song on this collection is ‘Oh How Softly’. Looking back over a life and reminiscing over lost childhood the song features the return of the angelic vocals of Melanie Horsnell who did the same duties on ‘Nowhere Now Here’. To hear Horsnell repeat over and over, at the close of the song, “Oh how softly time flew by” is breathtaking. As with his debut album, there is not a bad song on Broadie’s first E.P. and if it was released as a appetizer for his forthcoming album, which he has just started recording, then it has served its purpose. I’ll be first in the queue come release date.