Pretty Violet
Stain - Parachutes and Gravity (Warners)
Here's
a record for anyone just interested in music to enjoy for its own
sake. If you're after The Latest Thing, if you can't listen to songs
without making comparisons, you'll never get under this record's
surface. Pretty Violent Stain aren't breaking new ground. At first
listen, they sound like a heap of groups with a Beatles-style pop
fascination, notably Crowded House and the Posies. If that's your
musical bent too, this group and this record, is definitely for
you. Put aside those comparisons and just enjoy a bunch of intelligent,
hook laden, melody rich, lyrically interesting songs. Pretty Violent
Stain didn't start out this way. They started out in Brisbane as
your more typical hard-edged teenage angst-ridden group of their
generation. But when they won Triple J's Unearthed competition for
the Sunshine Coast, it was one of those power-pop sing-a-long songs
which drew attention. Singer and songwriter Shane Nicholson had
many more of them. They're the songs that came naturally to him,
the songs he just wrote no matter what, and was planning to use
for a solo project one day. As the group delved more and more into
this rich songwriting vein to satisfy demand, they eventually decided
to listen to what the people were saying and moved into this direction
instead, Shane happily giving up those solo plans. Shane doesn't
hide from the fact that his songs aren't going to start a revolution.
He's writing the kind of songs he loves writing and performing,
the kind of songs you remember, sing along to, can't hear enough
of. Add Pretty Violent Stain and Shane Nicholson to the list of
artists who do that really really well. Who said they don't record
great pop songs any more?
Here's
a record for anyone just interested in music to enjoy for its own
sake. If you're after The Latest Thing, if you can't listen to songs
without making comparisons, you'll never get under this record's
surface. Pretty Violent Stain aren't breaking new ground. At first
listen, they sound like a heap of groups with a Beatles-style pop
fascination, notably Crowded House and the Posies. If that's your
musical bent too, this group and this record, is definitely for
you. Put aside those comparisons and just enjoy a bunch of intelligent,
hook laden, melody rich, lyrically interesting songs. Pretty Violent
Stain didn't start out this way. They started out in Brisbane as
your more typical hard-edged teenage angst-ridden group of their
generation. But when they won Triple J's Unearthed competition for
the Sunshine Coast, it was one of those power-pop sing-a-long songs
which drew attention. Singer and songwriter Shane Nicholson had
many more of them. They're the songs that came naturally to him,
the songs he just wrote no matter what, and was planning to use
for a solo project one day. As the group delved more and more into
this rich songwriting vein to satisfy demand, they eventually decided
to listen to what the people were saying and moved into this direction
instead, Shane happily giving up those solo plans. Shane doesn't
hide from the fact that his songs aren't going to start a revolution.
He's writing the kind of songs he loves writing and performing,
the kind of songs you remember, sing along to, can't hear enough
of. Add Pretty Violent Stain and Shane Nicholson to the list of
artists who do that really really well. Who said they don't record
great pop songs any more?