Glorious five tracker from down under
“How can your face grow long when I’m around?” It’s more than a question. Hell, it’s more than just the opening line on “Talk” the second song on this debut EP from Sydney’s Flickertail, it’s almost like it distills their outright happiness to make the record.
It’s the harmonies here that get you. Johnny Goldrick has a way of sounding like it’s summer, no matter what he says (and not just because of the springtime sunshine through the window as I type this), but right from the opening strands of “Let There Be Love” (sort of a cross between AC/DC’s Thunderstruck and Thunder’s “Backstreet Symphony) to the last sounds of the brilliant “Back Of My Mind” there’s a sense of wonderment, of youthful enthusiasm about “Hurry Up And Wait”.
Mention of Thunder and Acca Dacca might throw you off the scent a little, because this is not some hoary old classic rock thing. It’s got a bit of that, of course it has, but its got a glam sheen too. “….Love” has hints of You Am I, while “Fade Away” is right from the same ballpark as MV faves The Virginmary’s (and any song that rhymes “kiss you” with “remiss to” is just dandy in our book) and Green Eyed Girl is like Cheap Trick doing a bluesy ballad about a one night stand.
Everything here is living each day like it could be the last and is on a mission to be as catchy as you like, but the last one, “Back Of My Mind”, perfects the formula. A riff that – lets be honest – has a touch of Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” about it, but crikey its got a rock solo and smile on its face too. As a metaphor for the EP, you won’t find a better one.
“Hurry Up And Wait” takes its name from a Stereophonics tune, and whilst it’s too early to say whether Flickertail (the name is a bird in their homeland) are headed the same way, what we know is this is a superb start. Hurry up and make an album, because we really can’t wait.
Rating 8/10
