Fluttering flutes are silenced by one of the bossier brass instruments, then Grace Cummings belts, "The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Morphine!" – it's giving Tori Amos.
Cummings recorded the wheezy “a-huh-huh”s that grace My God during a bout of pneumonia.
FAKE unpacks Good Girl Syndrome. This piano-driven, strings-enhanced song’s second half documents the antagonist’s remorse (“My God, what have I done?”), before morphing from extended drone into synthy, potential Doctor Who soundtrack for its final two minutes.
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The title track, with its hoofbeat undercurrent, was inspired by Botox remorse. Then the head-scratching Bloodhorse! (take two) hits like an accidental radio station switch: “She climbed up into my truck with no panties on…” – brace yourselves for 45 seconds of AI-generated bro-country slop.
Re: My Island And Me, which is resplendent with ball-tearing riffage, Cummings wrote: “I’d like to make peace with leaving the walled garden and surrender to the cold ocean, but I am deeply afraid of the world.”
The Magnum Opus Of The North Is A Cowboy Boot is about men who “cosplay as tortured poets or cowboys, pretending to be disaffected”.
Cummings has revealed she recorded the WITCH! WITCH! WITCH! chorus while holding “a massive scythe” handed to her by producer Jonathan Wilson. Bellringing chimes close out this one.
See You In 50 Years, this record’s closing statement, explores a multitude of time signatures and genres. Some sections would be well suited to a top hat-and-tails routine.
The antithesis of easy listening, Bloodhorse! is brilliantly bonkers.
Label: Virgin Music Australia
Release: 14 August
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