Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Cold Chisel, Cold Chisel Music/Universal Music Australia 2019.
As the opening track to their new album emphatically states “the band is back together.”
Blood Moon is the third album Cold Chisel has released in the last three years and it’s all the more special considering the creative purple patch that the various band members have been in over the past couple of years.
Don Walker has released his book Songs which is a collection of his lyrics from Khe Sanh to the present day and also his new solo album, Live At Camelot, which he is extensively touring.
In 2018, Ian Moss released his first entirely self-penned album titled Ian Moss, then earlier this year celebrated the 30th anniversary re-release of his ARIA award winning album Matchbook. He has been busy touring both albums for most of the year.
Jimmy Barnes, meanwhile, has released two award-winning biographies, Working Class Boy and Working Class Man, as well as his latest solo album My Criminal Record, which was released to much critical acclaim earlier this year.
With all this going on, you’d wonder where they found the time to get together and produce this album. But in June this year they were joined by bass player Phil Small and drummer Charley Drayton in Jimmy’s Freight Train Studio to workshop 25 songs that all members of the band brought in.
In August/September they reconvened with producer Kevin Shirley in Studio 301 to whittle the list down to the 10 tracks that made the final cut.
The songwriting credits are more inclusive these days. Don Walker is still a dominant contributor but many more are Barnes/Walker co-writes. Ian Moss also contributes and there is even a Don Walker/Charley Drayton track.
Jimmy has really found his voice as a writer in the last few years and thus his working relationship with Don Walker has changed. Instead of Don always writing the lyrics and Jimmy the music, the roles are now often reversed.
Blood Moon is a really good album because the songs are amongst the best they’ve written in years.
If you haven’t listened to the latest Cold Chisel albums then I suggest that you do so, for you will be in for a treat.
