In moving on from Silverchair, Daniel Johns stepped out of the spotlight completely, relishing a seven-year hiatus. He retreated, recalibrated and, in the process, planned his re-emergence. Given the context, Johns’ first release as a solo artist makes perfect sense. Talk is an album both made by a recluse and fit for reclusive people. “I preach to the lonely,” Johns confirms in the bombastic, falsetto-flecked early album track Preach.
Given its lengthy gestation, you’d be forgiven for hoping for more from Talk. “Now I dance to my own beat,” Johns declares proudly (again in Preach),and yet, on the contrary, Talk feels very much in vogue. Here’s the thing: it turns out that when you recruit Lorde’s producer Joel Little (who co-wrote a handful of tracks), you end up with an album that echoes Pure Heroine. No, not every artist has to reinvent the wheel with every release, but much of Talk feels so attainable elsewhere.
Johns’ melodies sit just fine atop the electro-soul backdrops, but there’s so obviously a gem of a pop record bubbling beneath the surface – album highlights We Are Golden and By Your Side illustrate as much. It’s frustrating that the record’s poppy streak goes largely unrealised. That said, things could have been much worse. We can be thankful that, in the tug of war between soulful and snore-inducing, the right side manages to win out, making Talk worthwhile, if a little familiar.
BY NICK MASON
