Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Eskimo Joe, Warner Music Australia 2018.
This is the third in the series of re-releases to commemorate 21 years since the formation of Eskimo Joe.
They kicked off the series in March with the re-issue of their 2001 album, Girl, and followed that up in May with 2011’s Ghosts Of The Past.
Both albums received the deluxe treatment with re-mastering and extra tracks.
Eskimo Joe’s fourth album, Inshalla, arrived in 2009 as the follow-up to their 2006 massive hit Black fingernails Red Wine.
Inshalla found the band drawing influences from their global travels with the Egyptian sounding intro to the opening track Foreign Land setting the tone for the album.
Front man, Kav Temperly commented that up until Inshalla their music was mainly about living in Fremantle and looking out at the world.
He went on to add: “This time, instead of stories about life in Fremantle, our stories were now written sitting in El Fishawy Café in the old market place in Cairo, or walking around Soho in New York; places where we were strangers.”
The album was quite a departure from their previous releases, not only in the palette of sounds that they drew upon, but also in their choice of producer.
For Inshalla they employed the services of celebrated US producer Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters, The Triffids) and the album was recorded in Byron Bay.
Norton encouraged the band to push themselves hard in the studio to create new sounds and song structures and the album does sound quite different to Black Fingernails Red Wine.
Inshalla debuted at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart and achieved Gold Record sales.
I really like the album.
It’s a record that needs to be listened to numerous times to fully appreciate its complexities. You need to get inside the bands heads to see where they were coming from.
There is wonderful variety on the album from the exotic to the deeply personal.
