The Port Of Old Fremantle – the haunting opener on the Sydney trio’s sophomore album, The Sunset Park – is the perfect introduction to the album’s four troubled characters: Brianne Sullivan, Kristy Bennett (Brianne’s best friend), Scotty Bennett (Brianne’s ex-boyfriend and Kristy’s brother) and ex-Vietnam veteran Kevin Pearce. Importantly, the band’s intricate, multi-layered arrangements elevate Gibson’s engrossing narratives as spoken word albums constitute a strange art form.
The warm instrumentation of the piano-laden Positive Negative allows Gibson to deliver a song of delicate subject matter with rare grace, but it leads awkwardly into How Dark Is The Night, which proves as tactful as its tale of a violent night. The multi-instrumental talents of Simon Holmes and Sean Kennedy – together with additional musicians/vocalists – instil the album with an expansive, almost cinematic, sonic and thematic scope. The Aerial Maps may be influenced by The Triffids, Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil, but their spoken word/folk-rock/experimental sound is undeniably distinctive.
In a country as wide, sparse and diverse as ours, Gibson finds every stretch of land intriguing and worthy of a tale; the struggles of the working class and the desperation of the lost are vividly depicted. When Gibson states that “there’s no Summer Bay” in the title track, it means more than its obvious connotation. The Sunset Park is an utterly unique, gripping and baffling Australian album.
Best Track: Salvation Road
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: In The Blinding Sunlight THE AERIAL MAPS, THE TRIFFIDS, PAUL KELLY
In A Word: Rare
