Album Review: Rob Hirst & Sean Sennett – Crashing The Same Car Twice
2 min read
Midnight Oil fans will rejoice, as drummer Rob Hirst makes yet another collaboration effort underneath the name Rob Hirst and Sean Sennett. In a turn that will delight many Oils fans – if not necessarily surprise them – the record is as true-blue as they come. Hirst has never been far away from the scene, appearing in bands such as the pop-rock Ghostwriters and country-influenced The Backsliders, but Crashing The Same Car Twice sees him returning to his roots. Although it’s technically a lot harder than any of his Midnight Oil stuff, it still ignites the nostalgia of that era.
CTSCT is clearly a passion project for the duo, and knowing that the album was fifteen years in the making and that Hirst and Sennett are long-life friends makes the listening all the more enjoyable. It’s garage rock in all of its raw, edgy glory and some tracks are also seriously catchy: Call To Arms soars as a serious head-banger and B Is for Bright Light is a thrashing piece of rock that is meant for the arenas.
Nonetheless, intentional or not, the majority of the album sounds extremely dated. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing: it will no doubt ignite some late 90s/early 00s rock nostalgia for the fans of Midnight Oil or fellow iconic Aussie rockers Frenzel Romb and The Living End.
In an age run by electronica and club music, Hirst and Sennett’s genre is quite niche now and CTSCT probably won’t gain them any new legion of fans. But one doubts Hirst and Sennett are worried about that: it’s quite evident on the album that they’re doing this for the fun of it and their intense love for Aussie rock.
