LightHeavyWeight 3 - Jack Howard (self released)
If you don't know who Jack Howard is, I can only assume you are a newcomer to Australian music, and probably a newcomer to this website. For the benefit of the uninitiated, he played trumpet with Hunters & Collectors, toured the world with Midnight Oil as their multi-instrumentalist and has played with the likes of Rodriguez, The Violent Femmes, The Living End, You Am I, Tex Perkins and Kate Ceberano.
So let's move straight away to the nitty-gritty. It's the music, it's the beat, it's the soul. Those are the only things that matter.
We all have memories about music. Some of us even have “aha!” moments, where we think: “I gotta do this!” (Usually with embarrassing results, it must be said. Is there anything sadder than an electric guitar bought for the child which still rests, pristine in its closed case, beneath the bed of a 60-something?).
My own memories more or less begin with hymns, most of which were dreadful and bogus, but I loved the organ (stop sniggering at the back there), especially on special holidays where the organist would let rip with cathedral-shuddering moans and drones. They also include my dad whistling, and playing numerous reel-to-reel tapes of big bands and jazz such as Louis Armstrong.
Which is one reason why I like to keep an ear out, when I can, for what Jack Howard is up to. I dig the horns, man.
Also, I dig stories, and while these songs aren't quite narratives, they do present snapshots which are both vivid and moving, without detracting from the way Jack's blend of horns and piano wrap their cloak around you.
“Time Keeps On Ticking” is a gently groovy piece, electro-beats pulsing in a rather lovely way, with enigmatic organ pieces with a murmured internal monologue. Despite the laidback nature of the music, which positively shimmers, the monologue accepts his mortality and that of his mum and dad, compared with the beachside reality all around him; waves, "voices from the cafe. Buy, sell! property prices and ungrateful children. Football and divorce"... which all terminates naturally in a positive resolve.
Jack has struck a superb balance between the inevitability of things, despite all the chatter and movement, with one of us moving amongst it all the fuss and confusion. This first song is magnificent, and if it were the only brilliant song on here I'd be urging you to pick up the lot.
However, there are five more...
Well, I haven't heard anyone whistle on a song in decades. 'Walk Tall' is a (similarly groovy) strut which would not be out of place in any crime show. Particularly as Jack appears to be chasing a dealer in St Kilda. His singing voice is damn cool, too, lots of tone and clarity.
“We Drank Some Tequila Outside in the Rain” is about as simple and elegant as it gets. Total mood immersion. Listen, and recognise yourself in this. You may need tissues. Marvellous.
With a title like “Talking At the Same Time” you'd expect a domestic squabble spilling out into the flats at two am, someone throwing the TV at a car and someone else heaving the runty yappy dog over the fence into the chicken coop. But that's my imagination, and not Jack's sweetly regretful yarn about death bumping heads with ambition, loss and purpose.
So, big themes here, you're thinking? Well, sure, but as I say, the music is so well crafted that you feel, I don't know, cradled, in the warmth and humanity of the song's arms.
I do hope that “I Can't Fight” isn't about his time in Hunters and Collectors. Either way, it's written in such a way that it may as well as be about you or me, which of course is the mark of a successful songwriter. It's gloriously gentle, rocking like mama's hands on our crib.
Close my eyes, it’s time to get lost
Year in year out, trying to figure it out
I can’t fight, don’t know what I’m fighting for
I can’t hide, don’t know what I’m running from
If you can't relate to this lyric, I'm wasting my time and you should go back to your accountancy course.
“So Many Ways” mourns a drab, ordinary present. Which I found quite sad, as I know too many folks in this position. Yet Jack cannot bring us down; it's just not in the man's soul. Give this song to Robert Smiff and he'll be yowling cat tears in no time; but in Jack's, we're slow-waltzing round the dancefloor, warm and fuzzy drunk, looking forward to going home to doze in front of a DVD of a favourite TV show. “Dragnet”, perhaps. “The Twilight Zone”? “Danger Man”? “Captain Scarlet”?
“LightHeavyweight 3” is a magnificent achievement. Simple, carefully constructed without overegging the eggnog, you know? And, bloody beautiful. Well worth your tenner, as you'll be playing it over and over.
Several songs here - not telling which - cry out for being covered by much bigger names. There's at least one I think Tex Perkins would dig, for instance, and I'm sure you can think of a few contemporary singers who require a new song from time to time. Hell, there's at least one which Elton J. should get his beringed fingers on.
While I'll cite the press release below, the truth is that you need more Jack Howard in your life. The loveliest St Kilda noir with rain-washed romance and gently brooding pop tones you can imagine.
Jack's press release says; "Between performing live and recording with the various projects that I'm involved with, I'm usually to be found tinkering on LogicPro on my mac, making beats, making up one chord songs and grooves, adding some melancholy flugel horn and some opaque lyrics, or snatches of lyrics. This is basically how the first two 'Lightheavyweight' records were born.”
“‘Lightheavyweight 3’ continues in a similar vein. Six tracks that snake along with drums and bass, lots of synths and piano; plus trumpet, flugel and vocals. The lyrics, I think, reflect a growing sense of mortality and reflection; and unexpectedly, reflect on the times when I first joined the band. Some of the tracks you can dance to, some you can close your eyes to and hopefully enjoy the aural surrounds.”
