Album Review: James Reyne, Toon Town Lullaby  (Bloodlines)

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Eight years since his last studio album, James Reyne delivers the goods with Toon Town Lullaby, ten finely crafted songs delivered with a voice in great form and a highly polished but sympathetic production.

Regarded deservedly as a great Australian singer-songwriter. First appeared with Australian Crawl in 1979 when the scene was dominated by punk bands. Their sound reminiscent of classic Beach Boys, well-crafted melodic pop music. All four albums charted in the Australian Top 5.

Another band project Company Of Strangers followed, and then it has been a long and accomplished solo musician career. Nineteen Top 40 hits make him one of the most successful Australian artists, with recognition as an ARIA Hall of Fame alumnus.

A distinctive and powerful voice. He writes on the highs and lows of human nature with a keen observational eye and often a cynical wit. I would like to call him a classic Americana artist. His music encompasses Alt Country, Folk, The Bakersfield Sound, melodic orchestral pop.

How about Australiana?  The Outback Poet.

Toon Town Lullaby opens the album and is the current single. Starts with a spare picked acoustic guitar, and builds as the song progresses. The voice moves effortlessly into the higher register. Colour added with piano, soft strings, a chorus. Brian Wilson and Pet Sounds territory.

Last Great Love Affair has a Springsteen feel, a driving song. A death song actually. A downbeat tune as he is singing in the aftermath of smashing into a tree after racing from trouble.

Crashing through my last great love affair. He is actually referring to his own self.

Musical style and Voice put him in Springsteen/ John Mellencamp/Bryan Adams territory for half the songs on this album.

But there is more.

A Little Ol’ Town South of Bakersfield starts in similar fashion but then quickly switches into a honky-tonk vocal and a rhythm heavy musical backing.

Trying to Write a Love Song switches things again and is wry and ironic in the style of Randy Newman. Reyne plays piano matched to a nice understated vocal. Couple in the room next door sound like they do their own stunts/ That’s what chandeliers are for.

On This Time there is a repetitive ringing guitar riff and a Buddy Holly style sound and lyric.

More theatrical and cinematic is Burning Books. Starts with spare piano again, then colour is added with a lone trumpet, strings, a soft chorus. Reyne’s voice becomes dramatic similar to Jeff Buckley. Singing about the land of milk and honey which could either Australia or America.

Wrong Guy would also make a great single and encapsulates in one song the overall tone of this music. An atmospheric drone of ringing and chiming guitars. The singer is coming down from the mountains and driving across a vast flat dry desert plain in a brand new air-conditioned Airmobile. The Voice soars to peaks, the guitars become sheets of sound with the chorus sweetening the blend.

On this particular album, there is an inspirational quality to his voice that also reminds me of John Fogerty in his days as the leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Entering his sixties, a veteran artist of Australian music, and very much at the top of his game.

Rev Orange Peel   

Rev Orange Peel
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