“I loved making this record so much,” Tex Perkins has said of Other World, “because fucking magic happened.” And it sure as hell sounds like it!
Much like Tex Perkins & The Fat Rubber Band’s striking self-titled debut, this follow-up album took shape while Perkins and co-writer/guitarist Matt Walker traded song ideas “like a game of demo tennis”.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
Perkins’ opening serve became the bluesy, Bill Withers-inspired Pretty Damn Close, which features distant harmonica and casual bongo rhythms. Then Walker’s guitar-bones return volley grew into Brand New Man, with the song’s lyrical inspo striking while Perkins drove over to meet his grandson Ernie for the very first time (“I’m off to meet/ A brand new man…”).
Written by (and featuring) Lucie Thorne, standout track Around The World is elevated by Charlie Barker’s ghostly saw playing – such a forlorn-sounding instrument. Elsewhere: irresistible saloon-piano stomper The Devil Ain’t Buying – with its jangly tamba accents – gives us Stones vibes; Perkins’ 12-year-old son Louie scores a songwriting credit on The Last Drop (it was inspired by a riff he was practising at home); and the matchless unison singing throughout closer Words Fall gives us goosebumps.
Each musician brings four decades of experience to this record and every single syllable, note and percussive flourish is essential. With Other World, this self-described “bunch of hairy blokes in their 50s” have created something out of this world.
Label: Source Music
Release date: February 10
