The Earthmen - Love Walked In Warners
Walking through Love Walked In Whoever�s Been Using This Bed Scott: It started off as a pastoral, country-esque song. It was very strummy. Nick: It was a guitar pickin� thing with all these lovely strings over the top. Then it got this disco beat underneath it and it all went all pop. Then this Smiths-y/George Harrison guitar line arrived...there were too many buttons to play with. You end up thinking �what kind of song is this going to be?� When you record over a long period of time that happens, things just develop. Scott: In three months I�ve gone through my techno, ska, indie, dance, country, pop and triathlon phases. Coloured In Scott: It�s about loss, it counterpoints being with someone for the first time and compares it to the present feeling and show how the two collide into each other. It�s called Coloured In because often there is a colour to emotion. When I wrote the chorus �don�t you love me anymore� I was umming and ahhing because it�s a cliche but that is the saddest thing in the world, someone not loving you anymore. Love Walks In Scott: We intellectualise a lot, but the songs are written acoustically and the words fit or they don�t. I don�t think using love in the title is cringe-worthy. Nick: It isn�t love in the emotion of love but the embodiment of love, like a person or a feeling. Scott: It�s actually a pretty nasty song.	Despite a name which, at first, suggests a bunch of old men with beards playing folk rock, Melbourne�s The Earthmen have given us one of the most wonderfully POP! albums you�re going to hear for a long time. Having started as an indie band a number of years ago the band has contracted and expanded... Indeed, most of this record was performed by core duo, singer Scott Stevens and guitarist Nick Batterham before recruiting the rest of the band. Many people will know the effortlessly catchy "Whoever�s Been Using This Bed" and this is a superb taster for this album. First single off the album "Hug Me Tighter" starts off slowly, but as soon as we reach the chorus, the song opens up completely like a butterfly from a cocoon, riding on a wave of joyous "do do dos". Brilliant! "Coloured In" adds a touch of melancholy - singer Scott Steven�s voice conveys such a feeling of hurt as he croons "Don�t you love me anymore?" that you just want to put an arm round his shoulders and tell him it�s alright. "Song To Sing" is like some lost classic from the 60�s, "Lie Without" and "First Single" rock out a little more, but still show their pop colours. "Arms Reach" and "This Much I Know" are slower and less immediate, but no less worthy, ending the album on a somewhat muted note. It�s great to see that finally an Australian band has proved that you don�t have to be a Savage Garden or a Human Nature to class yourself as pop. For Earthmen, these guys are certainly in touch with some heavenly tunes. Chris Butler	A fan home page Second Sight Nick: It�s not a song we play live, but it�s quite an important song on the record. Scott: It�s one of my favorite on the album, it�s got a sensibility about it I really like. Plus a song with �doo doo doo�s� is really important. �Doo doo doos� are the white- bread indie kid equivalent of the blues. Sounds and tonal qualities in voices can carry an emotional content as much as a lyric. Lie Without Scott: That started off as a punky, who-ish thing and ends up almost new wave on the record. Nick: it got weirder and weirder that song. There is a mix of it with a lot of megaphones and whistles and strangeness that was too crazy and too out of control. Scott: That�s one of the songs I�m happy about lyrically. It�s about people in relationships behaving extremely badly and they should know better. it�s not too complicated. Arms Reach Scott: that�s a real longing song, a big sense of loss. There�s a lot of longing on the record, it was representative of the time. The songs we�re writing now are a lot different. Nick: Arms reach is one of the most undeniably first person songs, you can�t pass it off as someone else�s experience. I didn�t write it, but I can relate to it.

Drop City - This Heavenly Machine Red Eye/Polydor

Glide - Disappear Here Hypnotized/Shock

Home Page This third album from Sydney�s Drop City sees them largely shedding their previous efforts Britpop sheen for more lush, (Pink) Floydian textures. �In Another Universe� opens this set brilliantly. Catchy as hell, and highlighted by an agile organ line, it�s Stereolab with Richie Tumbleweed filling in on vocals. Single �Living In the Machine (Part 1)� is the pick of the songs, locking itself into your subconscious and throwing away the key. Unfortunately the instrumental �Living In the Machine (Part 2)�, though it tries to be some kind of rock/raga trip, just ends up being a little dull. �Fools Rush In�, the first single has some folky influences, and the guitar epic �Indian Ocean�, with it�s intro which apes the start Blur�s �He Thought of Cars� are two other standout songs, while the rest reveal their pleasures only after repeated listens. Top marks also for the cd booklet, �lavish� is the only word to do justice to it. With This Heavenly Machine Drop City have definitely crafted one of the more ambitious and interesting albums of the year. Heavenly? Well, almost. Chris Butler

G lide have enjoyed spectacular indifference for God knows how long now, and you can kind of see why. They're not exactly the Most Interesting Band On The Planet are they? They don't really inspire a huge degree of PASSION. Official Home Page The Pop World practically demands bands to jump up and down and say "Look at us, we're better than you!", whereas Glide are the guys who sit in the corner and mumble things about "Letting the music speak for itself". Well, that's my little sermon done, now we can get to the main point of this: reviewing the album. I can safely say none of the songs really let the side down. "You Were Always More Than A Trick To Me, Ray" (?!) perkily opens proceedings with a flamenco-y flourish and the irrisistible "Surfaced Euphoric" settles itself in your head with a pipe and slippers without so much as a by-your-leave, while "Tangled", is catchy-as-hell jangle pop par excellence. The highlight is the gorgeous backing vocals in "Wrapped In Fingers" which perfectly counterpoint William Arthurs' voice, somewhat similar to Jaime from Marion, only not so annoyingly over dramatic. This album isn't going to change your world, but you'll find yourself loving it more and more with each listen. Not a bad ploy by the Glide boys, this music is a damn fine spokesperson. Chris Butler

Big Heavy Stuff - Maximum Sincere Hypnotized/Shock

Sydney�s Big Heavy Stuff have slogged it out for quite a while now, and this, their second album has been a long time coming. Singer Greg Atkinson used to be in indie-guitar merchants Ups and Downs and while the indie spirit is still here, in Big Heavy Stuff he�s also applied suitable polish to the final product. The songs range from moody and emotive moody slow burners to loud and impassioned cries (especially the Nirvana like Triple J favourite �Big Mouth�). More indie-rock than indie-pop but if you�d like a bit more of a guitar edge to your pop collection, be (maximum) sincere. Caleb

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