Releases from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Maggie Nicols/Robert Mitchell/Alya Al Sultani, and Gordon Beck Trio and Quintet
Latest editorial
Album Reviews: Martin Frawley's Undone at 31, Cass McCombs' Tip Of The Sphere, and Lily & Madeleine's Canterbury Girls
The Bard stands with the Reformers of Peterloo, and their shared genius in teaching history with music and song
SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State
MARIA DUARTE and MALC McGOOKIN review Sirat, The Testament of Ann Lee, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and All You Need Is Kill
STEVE ANDREW recommends a Marxist analysis of the long chains of production that global corporations exploit
MARY CONWAY relishes the period detail but misses the drama in this unsatisfactory dramatisation of the subjugated life of George Eliot
IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a mainstream scholar to the ranks of left-wing critique of US foreign policy
Martin Frawley
Undone at 31
(Merge Records)
★★★★
ON HIS first solo record Australian singer-songwriter Martin Frawley breathes new life into that pop music staple, the break-up album.
Having formed the now defunct indie band The Twerps with his new girlfriend Jules McFarlane, the relationship — and Frawley, it seems — came undone when he was 31.
With its Dylanesque drawl, intensely personal lines and twee instrumentation, opener You Want Me? is so good it threatens to overshadow the rest of the broadly chronological song cycle. Other tracks examine problem boozing, “meeting the parents” and the inevitable crash of the relationship with McFarlane.
Similar stories
New releases from Toby Hay, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Dobson & The Hanging Stars
New releases from Ibex Band, Lucy Dacus, and Various Artists
New releases from Black Country, New Road, Anouar Brahem, and Jaywalkers
Reviews of Ella Fitzgerald, My Morning Jacket, and Toria Wooff