Powderfinger
Internationalist (1998)
Powderfinger's third album Internationalist was said to be, at that point in their careers at any rate, their most experimental work yet. Previous album Double Allergic had been the group's first real success, though it was built on a bedrock of straightforward, if tuneful, alt-rock. By comparison, Internationalist saw the band playing with several different structures and musical styles, as well as maturing their songwriting skills.
It also happens to be the first album I heard by the band in its entirety, and it's for that reason I've selected it for a look back at.
The Album
Darlings of youth radio they may have been at the time, but reflection on the album (particularly a couple of its singles) yields the inescapable conclusion that this is largely radio-friendly commercial rock. It's pretty good radio-friendly commercial rock, but nevertheless it's hooky choruses and riffs packaged in generally careful arrangements and produced in an inoffensive manner. Consequently, it's a good listen overall even if it rarely reaches a crashing high.
Those singles have received significant airplay over the years. Passenger is the best known of them and is pretty good, creating an emotional atmosphere through its lush arrangement (featuring horns, which I had never heard on the song until listening through headphones) and with lyrics that do a decent job of portraying dull routine. The Day You Come is almost as good, its staccato guitar riff juxtaposed nicely with the steady bass line through the verses; and the choruses take on an ethereal quality with floaty instruments and Bernard Fanning's multitracked, delayed and reverberating vocal. Already Gone is pleasant enough but nothing to get excited about. However, the pick is the double A-side, Don't Wanna Be Left Out/Good Day Ray. On the album these are two separate songs, though both have an overarching theme of speedy, raucous rock that skirts the fringe of punk - cracking tempos, feral guitars and some mighty fine fill-heavy drumwork from Jon Coghill.
A couple of album tracks also provide welcome highlights. Belter certainly is; an urgent, gutsy stadium rock tune that really should be the opening track on the album (I firmly believe it's a perfect set opener to a live show, to be honest), thanks to its monster riff and singalong chorus. Celebrity Head is a manic, satirical slam on uppity music writers and reviewers, skewing some of the members of that world to great effect. Musically, it's got another driving tempo, created by a decent riff and some bombastic horns in the chorus. Capoicity is a song that objectively isn't that flash, it's a bit too long and pointlessly noodly. However, I find it to be a remarkably smooth, relaxing and beautiful song to listen to, especially in the last minute or so when Fanning's vocal ceases to be a kind of stage whisper and blooms into something powerful and commanding. The guitars wander effortlessly through pleasing melodies and the drumming is suitably gentle. I realise saying it's not flash yet it's smooth and beautiful is a bit of a contradiction...but I can think of no way to describe it better. I really like the song even though it really is fairly average.
The remaining tracks are more miss than hit. Hindley Street starts as random guitar noodling and somehow manages to go even more nowhere than that, Trading Places and Private Man show promising signs of playing around with different arrangements but don't have any moments that really appeal to the senses, and the rootsy Over My Head is like the Ringo song of Internationalist - the 'give Darren Middleton a song so that he shuts up' approach laid bare.
The Verdict
Internationalist's biggest hurdle is that - at sixteen years old this year - some songs have aged remarkably well, while others sound fairly tired and uninspired. Their popularity however is undeniable and, frankly, understandable - it's the sort of rock that people who can't handle anything edgy would listen to to say that they listen to 'edgy' rock, and it's also decent standard pop rock that at least tries to do unique things with pop structures.
Plus it can't be denied that, for the most part, the album (and the band) produce good quality, highly listenable tunes.
My rating: ***
Standout Tracks
Good Day Ray
Celebrity Head
Belter
No comments:
Post a Comment