Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Various Artists, Universal Music 2019.
Deadly Hearts 2 is a celebration of music, culture and identity and a reminder that as a nation we still have a lot of unfinished business to do with our Indigenous brothers and sisters.
This album is a collection of iconic songs reimagined by Australia’s best young Indigenous artists.
As the name suggests this is the second album in the series, the first was released in 2017.
The organisers put a call out to young Indigenous artists to nominate which song resonated the most with them as they were growing up.
The suggestions offered have resulted in an album with a diverse selection of songs displaying sonic landscapes that represent the wide range of artists involved in the project.
Electric Fields offer a haunting, electronic update of the desert region reggae classic Vision.
Alice Sky performs a beautiful version of Leah Flanagan’s Speak Your Language and Dan Sultan performs a sparse and spine-tingling acoustic performance of the fantastic Warumpi Band’s Fitzroy Crossing.
The line-up of artists on the album is great.
Dallas Woods explores the on-going struggle for survival in his powerful version of Talib Kweli’s Get By and Busby Maru covers the Troy Cassar-Daly/Paul Kelly song Lonesome But Free.
They comment that they felt humbled to sing such an important song from two of Australia’s greatest ever singer/songwriters.
There’s a wide range of musical styles on the album from acoustic country to hip-hop.
I really liked Radical Son’s version of the wonderful Archie Roach song Walking Into Doors.
It’s always been one of my favourite songs and I had the privilege of seeing Archie himself perform it in concert recently.
He is a living treasure and if you have the opportunity to see him grab it.
If you’re interested in modern Australian music, and/or justice for our first people then I recommend this album to you.
It provides a good cross-section of material from some of the best and emerging Indigenous artists currently making a name for themselves in the music business.
