One of our favourite bands here at the antipodean outpost of Backseat Mafia, Melbourne’s Blackbirds F.C., has just released their third album ‘Desire Lines’ and it is a dreamy treasure chest filled with delicious pop jewels.
Songwriter Jeremy Gronow, a fan of homegrown Australian artists, says of the new album:
This is a record that is unashamedly local in its perspective and sound. We don’t mean that in a jingoistic way; it’s just an acknowledgement of who we are and where we come from musically. We’ve always tried to have a strong sense of place in our music.
Gronow adds:
We tried more stacked harmonies and also explored how we could use the voices as another instrumental line or texture.
Sonically, ‘Desire Lines’ displays a shift in the sound of Blackbirds FC. moving away from an alt country sound to something more New Wave and indie. Gronow explains.
On our previous records, the songs always began with a bed track of acoustic guitar, but for ‘Desire Lines’, I switched to electric after missing the sustain and punch. This minor change shifted the band from our usual folk/alt-country vibe into more rock and roll territory. Suddenly, guitarist Jeff Baker and I had to think about how to complement each other and develop a new way of playing together, which was really exciting to do.
The album title is a reference to the informal, unplanned physical pathways that people create despite the efforts of designers. These lines typically cut across a planned route or area because they are a more to a more convenient or direct way to get where people want to go.
We liked the rebelliousness of people ignoring the expert’s plan and going where they want. It reflects how we wanted to forget about genre or style and try to let the songs go where they wanted. Going against the plan is the whole point of a Desire Line.
Opening track ‘What’s The Half-Life of Loving You?’ is a prime of the band’s inherent ear for soaring melodies and jangling guitars with a slight alt. country inflexion. The bass pulses with a febrile vibrancy and the percussion drives the pace, with heavenly harmonies singing at the edges. It’s a thrilling journey that jingles and jangles with a yearning melancholia. It’s a little bit of Teenage Fanclub with traces in the mix evident of classic antipodean bands like Paul Kelly, The Hoodoo Gurus and The Go-Betweens.
In writing the track, Gronow says he was inspired by some of his favourite break up songs – Beck’s ‘Lost Cause’, Colin Hay’s ‘Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You’ and Willie Nelson’s ‘Hello Walls’.
It’s a break-up song… a lonely guy grieves a lost relationship song. The protagonist is holed up in his dark flat as the traffic rushes by outside wondering how long he’s going to feel this way and trying to look forward to better days.
To my ear it has a freshness and energy that I really like. The song came together really easily and the arrangement just fell into place. The band had only played it a handful of times before we recorded.
As a songwriter the biggest thrill is when the band have an instant response to a song and the ideas flow quickly. If they get inspired with a part easily then I think I’ve done well, I love it when the players get engaged with the song.
Gronow captures like an image in a photograph the anxieties and pain involved in a dying or dead relationship, measured in the slow passage of time and sense of heightened awareness:
What’s the half life of loving, you? Will I never get over you?
My tired heart is shrinking as headlights track across this darkened room
At the end of the day it’s an indelible pop song that sparkles with a razor sharp mix.
Crisp guitars etch contrails in the sky as ‘Steal it Back’ starts with an ominous drive and a haunting sparkle. A rousing chorus with dual vocals add to the gloss: it’s a pure pop song that draws in a little INXS on the way.
In ‘Lake of Stars’ the guitars are crystalline and knife-sharp with the harmonised vocals coasting over the driving beat and weeping strings. The result is something that is as expansive as the blue skies over the outback, painting a vivid lyrical picture that captures the geography with images as sharp as that captured by a high resolution camera:
The lake will feed your soul, hide and comfort you
And send you back to where you’re going to
I hope you find me there, calling to the sky
Let the wild winds blow my loving back to you
From the Lake of Stars
It’s evocative, immersive track with a sense of deep yearning, giving it a melancholic hue. There is the narrative depth and expression of Springsteen mixed with an antipodean flavour, drawing in bands such as The Triffids or Goanna. Songwriter Jeremy Gronow says of the track:
The name came from a music festival an old friend was involved with in Malawi called the Lake of Stars Festival. I always loved the name so I decided to write about that.
I did some reading and found out that lake was really known as Lake Nyasa and was at the end of the East African Rift Valley between Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi in an area called The Handle. And so the Lake of Stars became the setting for a song about travelling and longing for a person left behind.
Lake Nyasa (aka Lake Malawi) was called the Lake of Stars by Scottish explorer and missionary Dr Livingstone. He happened upon the lake at night and thought the lanterns on the fishing boats looked like stars in the night sky. Anyway, it seemed like a very romantic and intriguing place and the lake seemed like a good place for the song’s protagonist to find himself and gain clarity about the girl left behind.
These are beautiful sentiments for a beautiful track.
‘Out of Step’ has a high stepping trot and jaunty air with a little alt country lilt while ‘1991 With the Bullet’ contrasts with its fuzzing beginning, hand claps, pure pop delivery and the trademark soaring melodies and harmonies.
‘Rings Around The Sun’ coasts on a delicious Hammond organ bed, the vocal duties are taken up by Gina Hearnden as the acoustic guitars ring out and luscious harmonies edge the delivery. There is an almost alt country ring to the track, augmented by the weeping violins that recalls The Triffids – an aching melancholia that creates vast, endless cinematic vistas and an electric undercurrent.
Gronow says ‘Rings Around The Sun’ was written during Victoria’s lockdowns in 2020:
The song is about getting over the anxiety of not knowing what the future holds and learning to enjoy the moment – a process many people went through during COVID. The chorus line “floating a river of light” was inspired by light reflecting off water onto a wall, as you often see at swimming pools or under bridges. For me, the song conjures up images of lying in bed with a lover in the afternoon, as the sun pours in the window.
The slow burning fuse sparkles with its yearning intensity and the lyrics are poetic and expressive:
I, call to the sea
End this odyssey
Let my ships come in
Fill their sails with gentle wind
The track perfectly captures that feeling of restlessness and anxiety, leaved by a resolute stoicism.
The percussive beats of ‘New Breed’ again contain the genetic codes of INXS with its funky soul inflections enhanced by the splashing guitars and coasting drive: an immersive anthem, cool and suave. It segues perfectly into the sixties day-glo pop of ‘June Day’ with its call and response singing and joyous chorus, a track guaranteed to put a spring in the step.
‘Maps Will be Burned’ show a more muscular side to the sound: a swaggering track delivered with a louche insouciance by Gronow replete with expressive guitars and a thousand yard stare.
The album ends with the reflective ‘How Long’ with its poignancy and introspection.
‘Desire Lines’ is a triumph, representing huge growth in the band’s songwriting and delivery. There is something uniquely antipodean in the sounds and lyrics, threaded with a subtle sense of wry humour, soaring melodies and shimmering instrumentation.
‘Desire Lines’ is out now and available to stream and download through the link above and here.
Blackbirds F.C. will be playing live on the following dates, including a lunch for the album tomorrow.
Melbourne Album Launch
Saturday July 19th
George Lane, St Kilda VIC
w/ Penny Hewson Band
Facebook event Tickets
Saturday August 30th
The Taproom Shedshakers Brewery, Castlemaine VIC
w/ Cold Irons Bound
Saturday December 13th
Mind Your Langridge @ Yorkshire Stingo Hotel, Collingwood VIC
Written by Jeremy Gronow
Jeff Baker – guitar
Phil Campbell – drums, percussion
Julien Chick – bass, vocals
Jeremy Gronow – vocals, guitar, keyboards, string arrangements
Gina Hearnden – vocals, acoustic guitar
Bec Long – cello
with Cameron McKenzie – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Cameron McKenzie at Station Place Studios
Cover design by Phil Campbell
Feature Photograph: John Baxter
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