Michael Carpenter - Redemption #39

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 13 / 8 / 2009

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Review

I once called him Michael Carpenter of the hardest-working men in music, but hehas left it five long years since his last album of new material, ‘Rolling Ball’ was released. It appears that the Australian King of power-pop who gained so many fans for colouring his music with shades of alt. country when all around him were content to just make the same record more than once actually started work on these songs are far back as 2006 and the album was, in fact, finished a year ago. Carpenter, as usual, was busy with other things, not least completing a Masters degree and taking on more production work, an area where he is already highly regarded. No matter what the subject matter of his songs were, Carpenter always conjured up images of summer for many of us. There was an ever present sparkle, that special something that never failed to lift your day, running throughout all Carpenter’s work. On reading the short but revealing liner notes that accompany this album, Carpenter reveals that the songs were written during a dark period in his life when a lot was happening to not only Carpenter but to those around him too. In Carpenter’s own words it "felt like a bottomless pit that we continued to sink into." Taking those words into account it was with some relief that the opening drum roll on the first song, ‘Can’t Go Back’, gave way to the chiming guitars that we have come to expect from Carpenter and within a matter of seconds it was obvious that, although the songs were born during a difficult period in his life, Carpenter has lost none of his talent for writing those life- affirming melodies that have made his previous albums so good. If after reading those liner notes you were expecting an album of doom and gloom then you’d be mistaken. Despite singing about not having the ability to return and right all the wrongs in an old relationship Carpenter’s vocals belie any sign of heartbreak on ‘Can’t Go Back’; indeed, I’ve yet to see anyone keep still to this song, it evokes a feeling of new, fresh love rather than regrets of an old one. Making a return to his previous solo albums, Carpenter produced, arranged and played the majority of instruments on ‘Redemption #39’ ( a reference to the artist’s age when he started the album) and it goes without saying that the album is immaculately played and produced. Carpenter is on particularly fine form vocally throughout, although there are still no rough edges to his vocals one feels that the years between this album and ‘Rolling Ball’ and, possibly, all that Carpenter has experienced in that time have added a little more texture to his voice. Bearing in my mind that every voice you hear on this album is Carpenter's just confirms that he is one of the best vocalists of his generation. Aside from those vocals, Carpenter has lost none of his guitar-playing talent either, the guitar on songs as different as ‘Workin’ For A Livin’’ and ‘I’m Not Done With You’ is simply stunning. The former of these two songs is the least appealing on ‘Redemption #39’, it’s not a bad song by any means, it’s a straight-forward rock and roll romp that we have all heard so many times before and I’m sure that it will go down a storm if Carpenter ever performs this song on a stage; it sounds that Carpenter had a blast recording the song and considering that again he handles all the vocals and instruments (with the exception of slide guitar which is taken by Paul Carpenter), but despite all Carpenter’s talents in playing and producing it has to be said that you can hear songs of this quality in almost any club in almost any town any night of the week. It doesn’t help that the following song, the aforementioned ‘I’m Not Done With You’ follows. This song has one of Carpenter’s prettiest melodies and some of his most touching lyrics. He’ll have you singing along, or trying to at least, and just try not to mimic Carpenter’s hands playing that guitar. ‘The King Of The Scene’ follows and here Carpenter shows his Beatles and ELO influences to the full and again proves that vocally and musically he is at the top of his game on ‘Redemption #39’. At least half of these eleven songs are some of the best that Carpenter has ever committed to tape and it could even be argued that this is his strongest album for many a year. This is one of those rare albums where I only skip over one song (‘Workin’ For A Livin’) whenever I play ‘Redemption # 39…which I’ve now managed to get down to about three times a day now.

Track Listing:-

1 Can't Go Back
2 Redemption #39
3 Workin' for a Livin'
4 I'm Not Done with You
5 The King of the Scene
6 Don't Let Me Down Again
7 Middle of Nowhere
8 I Want Everything
9 Falling Down
10 Sinking
11 'Til the End of Time