Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Jack Nolan, MGM Jacknolanmusic.com 2020.
I hadn’t heard of Sydney based Jack Nolan until this song but I’m glad that he’s come to my attention.
In The Hopeless Son Jack creates a moody undercurrent that reinforce the lyrical exploration of someone deemed to be a hopeless son.
The designation of ‘hopeless’ by a parent has to be one of the worst things any parent could do to a child.
The music ebbs and flows through periods of quiet, simmering, tension to explosions of anger and frustration as the tale unfolds.
Jack’s musical style is a mixture of folk and rock with tinges of country, but thankfully not of the twangy nasally kind.
He has an expressive voice that can convey tenderness but also strength in equal parts.
What is obvious from listening to his music and viewing his clips on YouTube is that Jack creates strong soundscapes to support his songs.
They are, above all, atmospheric and contain the interesting dichotomy of darkness and light in equal measure.
It takes a songwriter who knows his craft to achieve this.
Jack has released four studio albums to date, Our Waverley Star being the most recent, and it seems that Sydney and its people feature strongly in all of them.
Apparently Jack Nolan has Irish ancestry but says he’s Australian at heart and he cheekily claims that he traces his musical roots back to the ‘Darlinghurst country’ sound. I detect the Irish in that quote.
Despite being an independent artist he apparently has an international following and a distribution deal through MGM which gives some indication that the industry values the quality of his work.
I’m certainly impressed with The Hopeless Son and interested enough in Jack’s work to seek out an album for review.
