Fear and Trembling begins the album with the soused piano man troubadour warbling of a Tom Wait’s doppelganger in the autumn of his life. Suddenly, the sense of frenetic stomps in and the song becomes an anthemic catalogue of many questions and few answers.
Gang of Youths appear to be in total control of their domain with a formidable battle hardened sound. Leader Dave Le’aupepe easily delivers a confident voice to the Australian musical landscape, adopting the role of a rock cavalier. The album covers all points between crushing desperation – Atlas Drowned–to the atmospheric strut of Keep Me In The Open. The shorter pieces lend a soothing and restorative flavour to the more expansive creations, such as Achilles Come Down which creates a type of aural mist the listener can easily get lost in. Persevere becomes a chameleon of melancholy and sadness that suggests they have been delving deeply into the soundtracks of ‘70s avant folk records.
Congenial musings then give way to a thoroughly beautiful instrumental, Le Symbolique, which scales great heights until being criminally cut short. When songs such as The Heart Is A Muscle reach their end, one can sit back and accept that they have been privy to a colossal and rewarding listen.
