There’s a haunting brutal honesty about the title Cold Desire; the third long player from Sydney’s Ernest Ellis. From time to time you hear an album and the immense quality of what you’re listening to makes you feel like the relatively low profile of the artist who created it can’t possibly be correct. Surely someone who could put together such a carefully crafted album of such personal yet cold winter anthems must be selling out venues and giving Vance Joy some competition on the ARIA charts.
Clearly this isn’t the case with Ernest Ellis, as mainstream success has somehow eluded him and his five-man band. And that in itself is a travesty based on this album alone, even without taking into account his back catalogue.
As mentioned before, this album matches its title, as it feels desperately intimate. However, it acts as a catharsis to the basic human desires and urges, be they right or wrong. The album cover, which features Ellis on a hotel balcony, potentially somewhere foreign, connects to this idea, in what looks like the morning after this idea of cold desire is sated.
From the glorious Clean Machine, the subdued Black Wire I to Way Down, a song that just prior to the album’s halfway mark, proves again the quality that is present throughout this release. The most catchy song, and that term should be used lightly with Ellis’ music, is the gratifying Inside Outside. Ellis has created a one of the best and most original Australian albums in a long time.
BY ALEXANDER CROWDEN
Best Track: Way Down
If You Like These, You’ll Love This: MORRISEY, BECK, FOALS
In A Word: Serendipitous
