In an interview with HG Nelson and Roy Slaven, Nick Cave offered the somewhat provocative observation that sadness is a natural emotion: with the heightened awareness of depression and its potentially tragic consequences, it’s unfashioned to concede that darkness of the mind is not a modern day psychological aberration – it is, for better and for worse, part of the human condition.
There’s a darkness about Ivy Street that hangs like clouds on a dull winter’s day; yet, almost perversely, it’s enlightening and almost charming in its intensity. 1980, the opening track from Ivy Street’s new album, Courting, is foreboding – what is it about that year (John Lennon’s death, Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, Malcolm Fraser’s re-election, the beginning of Richmond’s decline as a football power?) that should invoke such emotion?
Glenorchy celebrates, in a bittersweet sort of a way, the regional town from Ivy Street’s home state; A Minute’s Notice is all rumbling beats and sparse chords, a meander into the territory of cognitive isolation. Calamity is anything but – it’s The Smiths without the foppishness, or Joy Division seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and realising that shit’s going to be OK.
Yet on Courting for the Morning, matters hang in the balance: the jarring chords could foreshadow drama, but only if you’re unprepared. This is Stickmen territory and it’s well travelled. The Bartender is the rambling of a barfly recounting the human detritus that’s passed by him – or maybe her – over some indeterminate time; the narrative at the heart of Carmel Keeps a Bucket is disturbing in a Department of Social Services sort of a way.
The Camera’s Pierce (Jeffrey Lee?) is folk for the heavy of heart and clouded of mind; Ten Ounces in the Sticks renders country life in a subtle gruesome guise and Nearest Container ebbs and flows like a man condemned wavering between secular self-hatred and spiritual awakening.
Courting isn’t a record for your next dinner party – then again, maybe it should be. Because the world it explores is real, and it’s natural. And we shouldn’t be afraid to admit it.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: Carmel Keeps a Bucket
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: THE DRONES, NICK CAVE
In A Word: Emotional
