Album #48 : Shane Nicholson - Familiar Ghosts

Shane Nicholson

Familiar Ghosts (2008)

Allow me to begin this review by listing all the things I know about Australian country artist Shane Nicholson:

He was married to Kasey Chambers

There you go.

A glance at his not particularly amazingly informative Wikipedia page informs me that he was in a band that did rather well in Triple J's Unearthed competition (when it was a competition) and that he has released several well regarded country albums. One of those is this one, Familiar Ghosts, which was apparently nominated for Best Country Album at the ARIAs.

So to add even more variety to the blotchy, multicoloured palette of The LOAD Project, and to fulfill another request (you're welcome, Jim), here's a review of it.

The Album

Familiar Ghosts is, generally speaking, pretty by-the-numbers country music. There's more banjos than a Deliverance tribute band convention, plenty of doses of sweet, sweet harmonica and the vaguely light American-style twang of the vocals. Much of the sound comes either from layers of banjos or layers of acoustic guitar, with other occasional instrumental contributions for flavour; the album is very light on for drums, with the percussion duties handled mainly by tamborines and other lame percussion instruments.

Having said that, the sound is very clean and well produced, with a great balance between music and vocals; Nicholson's voice comes through very clearly throughout, allowing his lilting vocal to take centre stage. Additionally, the songs themselves are, while unremarkable, also very pleasant and easy to listen to. 

For the most part I found that the more uptempo songs, such as Easy Now, Where The Water Goes and Who's At Your Window were more enjoyable and exciting than the slower, more downbeat songs on the album. I particularly liked Who's At Your Window, with its duelling banjos (DELIVERANCE REFERENCE FTW) and hints of Bernard Fanning's Songbird. However, there were two songs that were slower in tempo and darker in tone that really stood out, although I found them very similar (perhaps too similar): Short Fuse (part 4) and You and Your Enemy. Both track are mildly venomous if I'm honest, with slightly foreboding chord progressions and defiant lyrics, as well as wailing, screaming electric guitar lines. 

Also of interest were the songs God and Elvis and Thankyou and Goodnight; the former, a decent enough tune that treads some remarkably cliched ground. Surely this can't be the first time a country artist has recorded a song called God and Elvis? The latter would be very familiar to most gigging musicians, especially the early plaintive musings ("I hope I sang your favourite song and I hope I got it right/I'll dedicate this one to you, thankyou and goodnight").

On the whole, it was all just very....inoffensive. Even the songs with the swearing were just too nice and inoffensive. Which is okay, there's room for that in anyone's music collection...but don't expect to have your world rocked.

The Verdict

Familiar Ghosts is a very apt title. The whole thing is remarkably familiar, as it treads over commonly visited musical ground; and the ghosts are those of country music past, brought to life again on this album.

(Wow. That has to win the prize for Most Tortured Analogy And Explanation Ever.)

If you wanted country music with edge, or at the very least something to say, you'd look elsewhere for sure. If you wanted country music that is just nice to listen to, you could do far worse than Familiar Ghosts. I realise that's something of a backhanded compliment, but it suits an album that is not bad, nor good....it just is.

My rating: ** and a half

Standout Tracks

Who's At Your Window

You and Your Enemy

Where the Water Goes

Tomorrow, I'm going to be reviewing the most recent release by one of Australia's most revered and legendary rock bands of the last 20 years.