Wonderful. I love pop, especially smart, intelligent, literate pop. In one sense this LP is kinda like discovering one of those '60s gems at the back of your older brother's collection and realising ... this is just fucking perfect. In timeless pop style, I cannot pick my favourite song. And I keep playing the thing. Over and over.
We'll start with the obvious. You need this one like you need underpants or shoes or food. Get it here. Buy "Pretty" for Christmas presents. Buy it for people you barely know. Send it to everyone in TV and Movie Land you can think of.
It's such an obvious idea that it's a wonder no-one issued this before. Thumbs up to Aztec for giving Wollongong's finest "the treatment" with a lavish double CD set covering all their early singles and EPs, along with their self-titled debut LP and the "Daddy Long Legs" CD single. It coincides with the band's reformation and return to bursts of gigging so it's all the more timely.
The portents were good. A reformed band, firing live and determined not to be a heritage act. Old burned bridges rebuilt. New songs. Reunited with the producer of their best-sounding work and taking the time to make sure they hit the mark in the studio. And they did. Make no mistake. This is Tumbleweed's best moment since 1995's "Galactanphonic" and it might even eclipse it.
Even though it's nothing like sleepy London Town there's still not more a lot more to do in financially-strapped Greece these days than sing in a rock and roll band. Even the olive trees are out of work. Bazooka hails from that place (Greece, not London) and plays a rumbling, surly brand of lo-fi rock and roll that sits perfectly in the formidable Slovenly Music stable.
It's like you'd never know there's some sort of golden age of music going on in Australia right now.
