Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Something For Kate, EMI 2020.
It’s been quite a wait but it’s wonderful to finally have a new release from Australian alternative rock greats Something For Kate.
The Modern Medieval is their first new studio album in eight years and I think that it is one of their very best. (Leave Your Soul To Science 2012 was their last effort)
The album was due for release last week (Friday 20 November) and four singles have been released so far including Situation Room. (I have to admit that when I first heard it on the car radio I thought it was a new Crowded House song).
I was easily misled because there is something in Paul Dempsey’s vocal presentation, and the song’s structure, that is very reminiscent of Neil Finn. Both of them should take this as a compliment.
The four singles so far released areSituation Room, Waste Our Breath, Supercomputer and the latest, Come Back Before I Come Back To My Senses.
The Modern Medieval is an album that surprises and delights at every turn. The variation between the first four songs alone is fantastic. Each is worthy of being a single but the same could be said for most tracks on the album.
In an interview with Double J’s Zan Rowe, Paul Dempsey revealed that this album is not only the culmination of a substantial amount of work but the band travelled a considerable distance to complete it.
The recording process started at Bernard Fanning’s Byron Bay Studio, further tinkering occurred back in Melbourne before they headed to Toronto in Canada for mixing, followed by final mastering in Perth.
It’s certainly a long distance project and it reflects the different approach the band took in developing the album.
Unlike most of their earlier albums, that mostly emerged from the recording studio in completed form, they wanted to take much more time to live with the new material on the album.
This allowed them to break the songs up and tinker with them until they were satisfied with their efforts.
Each song has been revised, edited and polished until it has reached a form that is as close to perfection as it’s possible to achieve, consequently these songs exhibit a perfect blend of pop catchiness and rock intensity blended with indie street cred.
