Fifteen years ago, this record from an Adelaide band sounded like one of the best pop rock records to have been crafted at Abbey Road in a hundred lifetimes. There's been a lot of water under the Albert Bridge since then but nothing's different today."Brown House in Stepney" taps a Kinks vein with gated vocals and a bouncy rhythm. Ray Davies has an uncanny knack of making songs about simple things feel right and this one plays in the same space. A bold move and it pays off.
"Lena" flips the switch to fuzz but sounds underdone as a song. "Black Vinyl Heart" makes up for the filler and is something of a stylistic cornucopia, with surf licks and complicated chick pop lyrics. A live "Get On The Outside Of This" suffers slightly from the cleanness of being a desk recording but, my, doesn't this baby swing. The greasy harmonica doesn't detract, either.
You want winsome pop? "You Think I Don't Know" delivers in spades and would sit well on a Someloves record. "Jasmine T" is an obvious nod to the Beatles and comes in two flavours - the original mix and a "fulsome" one. Set the controls for backward masked guitars.
We ran a gushing reviews of "Brass Knobs..." Back in the day. Some people think we run roo many gushing reviews but the fact is that we only review shit we like. And we like "Brass Knobs...." A fucking lot.
3/4
