Album Review: Alex Lloyd – Urban Wilderness
2 min read
Amazing is now immortalised in the Axis of Awesome’s 4 Chord Song, but it’s been a while since the Australian general public have heard new material from Alex Lloyd. Urban Wilderness is his seventh studio effort since his 1999 debut, and is his first album in 5 years.
The album oscillates between the middle-of-the-road (Bring It On, Honestly, Light on You) and quirkiness (Anie, Black Cat). The first half is well crafted and features songs that stick. Black Cat juxtaposes Lloyd’s heavily processed, robotic vocals against cool, female harmonies, and thus combines the organic with the man-made. It is an effective opener in conveying an industrial outback, apocalyptic setting to listeners. Lloyd is at his soulful best on the bouncy Waterfall, which is infectious (‘You are… my waaaa…terfall’, ‘do-wood-da-boy’). Gorgeous harmonies abound on Wait To Long, a gently produced, downbeat ballad whose choruses recall the best of Christine McVie’s poppy contributions to Fleetwood Mac. However, One Trick Pony is a one trick pony in the sense that it uses those same four chords as Amazing and countless other songs featured in the 4 Chord Song. Fortunately, its laidback vibe and na-na-na-nahs put those concerns aside.
The songs towards the end of the second half of the album begin to sound the same; Reign on Me is a rather boring closer that doesn’t make listeners feel that sense of accomplishment after finishing an album. One exception is Better the Less You Know, which is a rather strange choice for the lead single, despite its catchy ‘dang-dingy-dong-dang-dingy-dony-dang’ hook. Its arrangement wouldn’t sound out of place in the late 1960s. It mixes eccentric piano backing and harmonies evocative of The Beatles’ Lady Madonna with a drum pattern taken from Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady.
Urban Wilderness is a mostly fitting album title for this collection of songs. There is a bit of a country twang throughout that makes these songs a good summer driving soundtrack. Keyboard enthusiasts would love this album, as the Fender Rhodes and Hammond Organ feature prominently on tracks like Good Thing, Light on You and Untouchable Moon. What this album lacks is more of that ‘wilderness’ that is most effectively portrayed in Black Cat. Nevertheless, Lloyd has produced a solid, if not somewhat safe, effort.
[CBC country=”au” show=”y”][/CBC]
