Album Review

Steve Smyth – Release

• 16th Mar 2012

Release is the debut album from Australian blues guitarist Steve Smyth and in just ten songs he shows the sheer range of his talents rather nicely. As well as playing electric and acoustic guitars Smyth also demonstrates his abilities as a vocalist, deploying his terrific range to good effect, and as a songwriter.

This is not at all the album I was expecting to hear, based on my sole experience of seeing Smyth play live as support to Angus and Julia Stone last year. It’s less blues and more folk and Americana leaning. Less searing guitar licks and more lyrical content. And it is all the better for its variety.

The opening Barbiturate Cowboy and His Darkness is atmospheric and dramatic, the vocals ranging from husky to high pitched and strong, while Bar Made Blues uses almost spoken word stylings in places. A Hopeless Feminist starts slowly, fuzzy guitar in the background, before a searing solo bursts from nowhere, and later another similar short assault hits, stopping as suddenly as it had started.

The single Endless Nowadays has a lazy Americana feel to it, although there is a harder undertone to the track and the vocal harmonies work well in the chorus. In A Place is a slower, more delicate track with soft vocals backed by an acoustic guitar. Midnight In The Middle is dominated by a martial sounding drumbeat that sits at its core, the eerie sound creating the feel of a battleground.

The two standout tracks on the album are very different. No Man’s Land is the all guns blazing blues epic that I remember from Smyth’s live set, the tortured vocals and fine guitar work combining to create something memorable. Stay Young, in complete and total contrast, is a country sounding duet with Juanita Stein of Howling Bells, where the two voices contrast perfectly before coming together in a beautiful series of anguished harmonies.

A pair of slow songs closes the album. There’s A Light is acoustic based and perhaps a little plodding while Too Much A Nothing includes a couple of dramatic moments with an electric guitar exploding alongside almost shouted vocal outbursts.

An honest and unpretentious approach comes through clearly in Steve Smyth’s work. It’s as if he makes the music he wants to make, loves doing it and isn’t really too bothered what anyone else thinks. And the end result is a collection of songs that is eminently listenable and entertaining in a whole number of different ways.