published: 21 /
9 /
2007
Label:
Black Yak
Format: CD
Homely-sounding new album, originally released by singer-songwriter Tim Freedma in his native Australia under the moniker of his band the Whitmans, but re-released in Britain under his own name to coincide with a solo tour
Review
The Whitlams are one of those groups who are really big in their home country of Australia but are still fairly unknown throughout Europe. With a trio of platinum albums behind them the band which was formed in 1992 have also won a number of awards back home too as well as making headlines for refusing to play for Australian troops in Iraq for political reasons back in September 2006.
What is initially confusing is that ‘Little Cloud’ was released in Australia as The Whitman’s sixth studio album but back then it was a double CD combining ‘Little Cloud’ with ‘The Apple’s Eye’. The initial ‘Little Cloud’ CD consisted of eight songs broadly concerning returning to Australia from abroad during an election year. Its companion ‘The Apple’s Eye’ was mainly written when Whitlams lead singer Tim Freedman lived in New York in the winter of 2004, hence the title. That album also contained eight songs.
Now released as a ‘solo’ album under Freedman’s name in the U.K. to tie in with the solo shows the singer/songwriter is undertaking throughout Europe we lose 3 songs but the thirteen we do hear over a single CD are simply breathtaking.
The album opens with ‘Beauty In Me’, a touching tale of a nineteen year old girl hoping to make it in films or music or…anything. With lines like “they’ll see the beauty, it’s in my soul” and “she’s nearly twenty and so very old” the longing in Freedman’s vocals matches that of the girl’s ambitions. But it’s not just Freedman’s sweetly perfect vocals; it’s his ability to write tunes that stay with you long after the song has finished. And there are thirteen of them here. Each and every one of these songs is perfect. While comparisons to Crowded House are understandable they really don’t do Freedman justice. Both bands write beautiful melodies for sure but vocally Freedman wins over the Finn brothers and while a Crowded House album was never a bad thing I would be hard pushed to name one that matches ‘Little Cloud’ song for song.
‘Fondness Makes The Heart Grow Absent’ will touch at the heartstrings of anyone who feels homesick for their mother country. Initially part of the ‘Apple’s Eye’ album, with another unforgettable melody plucked from the heavens Freedman details the feeling of waking in the night and yearning to be on home ground again. “Looked down at the gravestones guarding St. Patrick's in the snow, and I thought if that’s where it all ends I should get home again with you”. But it ends on an optimistic note, with Freedman sitting in Balthazar’s, his favourite restaurant with “a vow to die a natural death in my own good time”.
It’s understandable that to tie in with his solo tour that this album is being promoted as a Tim Freedman release; Freedman plays the piano on the album which is what he will be doing on the tour, but however good he makes the songs sound in that stripped bare setting there is no doubt that the contribution of the other Whitmans over these thirteen songs adds to their beauty. On songs like ‘Keep The Light On’ which is for the most part just Freedman’s vocals and piano like it will be on those European stages, the background vocals of the other three Whitmans (Warwick Hornby, Jak Housden and Terepai Richmond) along with their drum parts and admittedly small guitar parts on this particular track really take the song from being a pleasant ballad to an affecting love song. Sometimes it’s the little touches that make a song. Having said that, it will be interesting to hear what Freedman does with these songs in a more intimate setting.
Housden in particular adds some really nice guitar touches throughout this album. So good, in fact, that it makes a newcomer to the work of The Whitmans want to check out the whole back catalogue.
Overall there is a warm, homely feel to all these songs, there is nothing that is going to change the course of music or that we really haven’t heard before but Freedman and The Whitmans, on this showing at least, do what they do better than most. And what they do is produce thoughtful, intelligent pop music that will never age. More a little gem than a ‘Little Cloud’.
Track Listing:-
1
Beauty In Me
2
Fondness Makes The Heart Grow Absent
3
Been Away Too Long
4
Keep The Light On
5
White Horses
6
I Was Alive
7
Year Of The Rat
8
She's Moving In
9
12 Hours
10
Tonight
11
Fancy Lover
12
Little Cloud
13
The Curse Stops Here