Slinging Their Hooks

Friday is about music, and there’s links and playlists, always. Today, a new-to-me album recommendation by an old-to-me mate. Love a good recommendation. Gotta share that good news…

Jonny’s in his basement, typing out on Messenger, I’m listening to Pavement, tying not to think about this Government. He says, simply, “you hear that album Sentimentalism by the Slingers, cos if not, you want to put that right, toots sweet”. And I’m all, “nah — but cheers, I’ll get right on it.”

Love a good recommendation. People used to be scared to give them to me. I remember turning up at a house once and they were playing the first Norah Jones album, and the guy says, “Is the music okay?” And I said that sure it was fine, or whatever. And he adds a-fluster, “It’s like you’re a finely-dined restaurant critic and I’m about to service up something cheap and nasty”. I laughed his silliness away. And enjoyed both the Norah and the irony-free spag bol, yo.

So when someone says with any sort of authority that I need to try something — I’m in. Especially when I’ve never bloody heard of it.

Two seconds into the first song on Sentimentalism, I say to myself, Australian! The guitar lick hasn’t yet curled its tongue over to fold back in on itself. I’m reading the quick band bio to confirm that, yep, Aussie. And I’m listening to a sophisticated, slick, and lovely song that seems to pour equal measures of The Drones, The Go-Betweens and that first Strokes album all into a big ole cup o’ song.

From there it gets better. As guitars and keyboards lock in with each other, and melodies shine. The album was released last year. The band is from Melbourne. I didn’t know either of those things until a week ago. But I’ve kept listening to this album for the last six days, and I feel like I’ve found a new friend. I keep wanting to check in. Still good? Yeah mate, still good!

There are songs that might not have been out of place on the last Delaney Davidson album (Down To The Bone). There are more of those little-treat Aussie battler, go-you-good-thing guitars (Raising The Dead) that’ll have you thinking of Paul Kelly and Go-Betweens, the Oils, the Hunters, the bloody roo is loose mate, look out will ya!

Someday Sister is a piano ballad so perfectly poised and placed, because up until now it’s all been finely tuned, spit-polished jangle. And then It’s Something delivers a moody synth squelch, to remove us from the forlorn country-pop motifs and take us near to the nightclubs. Oh, I get it, this is one of those Record Collection Pop albums; clever bastards showing off what they know—hiding references within references, so just as you’re sure you can chuck a bunch of names in a bucket and pull one or two out like a party trick, they’re subverting your long division, they’re sublimating all up in your maths, friend. Midway through It’s Something, a guitar solo arrives that couldn’t be more Australian Country if it shouted “how good?” right in the middle of its own drunken waltz in place of a Texan strut. Not just upping the ante, but two-uppin’ it mate!

Streets of Tokyo takes the city-pop of the city in its title, and pops a bit of Jarvis Cocker-y croon atop. There’s more of that country-gnarled guitar. And it’s cute as fuck, catchy as the virus, and even has lines that are charmingly reckless (“I never seen you look so calm/As with a needle in your arm”).

More piano balladry, again so brilliantly timed and placed — this record exquisitely paced.

If you’re playing along at home, by which I mean actually checking in on some of these tracks while reading, or returning to re-read this after putting the album on, I might be losing you as you decide the lyrics are too soppy, or the songs too weepy. But goddamn that is exactly what I love about this. Men putting hearts on sleeves. Fuck yeah!

Now look, I still know next to nothing about this band, and I’m pretty much keeping it that way. Oh, of course I want the record on vinyl, and CD, and cassette tape if they’re making it, and I would go a t-shirt or some sort of merch eventually, but I don’t know if this is all a cosmic pisstake, or they really mean it man. But frankly, it doesn’t matter. This is exquisite art. And I’m pretty sure they mean it too, by the way. Because why wouldn’t you, and what’s not to love about love.

I might not love everything The Slingers go onto do, they might really change their tune. But they took their time to get to this moment, and bloody nailed it as far as I’m concerned. They made a bunch of cool singles and sounds leading up to this. (I did rip back through the early work earlier in the week), Including, and perhaps especially this little loving Paul Kelly pastiche:

About as perfect an Australian Song as an Australian Song could be. Fair dinks.

I feel like when I first heard The Johnnys’ Highlights of a Dangerous Life,

or The Drones’ Wait Long By The River and The Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By,

or particular albums by The Go-Betweens, Paul Kelly, Hunters & Collectors, and The Necks — those albums where you know the band will go on to more great things, if they haven’t already, but even if they didn’t, or hadn’t, or couldn’t, they’ve already managed to create something truly special, something unique.

I’ll go back to The Strokes as an example. I think, weirdly, that might be best. When that debut album by The Strokes came out, and the post-modern world we thought we knew was just getting scared by itself, post-9/11, we’d all heard every single thing The Strokes were peddling, but it still made sense to hear them do it in their spin. It was cute, and though they didn’t have enough to keep me listening to everything they’d go on to do, that album is a marker in time and still sounds great today, promise!

Something in me feels the same way about Sentimentalism by The Slingers now as I did about Is This It by The Strokes then. And, yeah, yeah, I know this new album was released last year, and a wave of people (small or large) has heard it, loved it, and also moved on maybe, and perhaps the band is already finding its next set of styles to perfectly assimilate, but something about me hearing this album right now, and having it to love feels like the right timing for this kind of comfort. America asked for us to cry with it about 9/11, and we did. And it’s been a bumpy ride with them ever since, disappearing up parody’s arsehole sometime ago. America’s biggest threat now runs the fucking show. This is a strange place for “a music review to go” but I’m glad to have the hooks of the Slingers to hang on to.

And I don’t agree with all of Australia’s politics, far from that actually; I’m embarrassed by great amounts of how their governments see the world, and how they treat large portions of their own people, but we need to land this back in music’s space. One thing I love about the very best Australian music — and the absolute best of it is some of the best anywhere in the world — is that there are no seasons, there are no reasons for things to be popular. Good is good. Their cream rises to the top. And bloody usually bloody stays right there eh. And The Slingers feel like the next truly great Australian thing to me. I’ve been wrong so many times that I’m in no way hanging on to any hope of being right here. Because, also, I already am right. I’m talking about my own feelings about this band, and how I arrived at what they do, and how much I love it; how perfectly it sits there for me.

So thanks Jonny. I did listen. I did love it. I’m grateful for your recommendation. And I think Sensationalism is one of the best ‘complete albums’ I’ve heard in years.

Oh, and I need to finish by sharing the final song. Because to show they built a perfect album I need to show you how they decided to end it. With an epic closer called The Needle And The Nine To Five

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And finally, and as always, Friday’s Something For The Weekend playlist. For this one I got on a 90s trip (prob some sort of cheap mini-van). And I didn’t get off it, riding until the very end. So, it won’t be the most ‘chill’ of the weekly playlists, but it might be your exact flavour. Good for the nostalgia-valve. So I hope you enjoy:

As always, thanks for reading. And for listening.