This release came out months ago, but for some reason, it’s not on Bandcamp… so, I’ve had to venture onto (…ugh) Spotify. Definitely not my first, or second choice of platforms, which I will blame for my lateness. What’s the Purpose?
In an interview we did last August, the band stated they were not fans of any song sounding like any other song in their set, and that is largely true for ‘The Purpose’. There’s a great variety here. However, there are certainly a few songs that can be linked together. In particular, there are a few tracks that are mostly straight-ahead rock, like ‘Hot Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ and ‘Side On’, while some are at the opposite end of the spectrum, being on the quieter side, such as ‘Train to your Town’ and ‘A Little Strange’. My favourite song, however, is ‘Carry Fire’. It is definitely different from the rest of the album, and it’s an earworm. It stays in your head and keeps coming back. In the shower. Eating dinner. Anywhere. And thankfully, it is a very, very good song, so not at all a bad problem to have. It’s a bit more experimental that the rest of the album, both musically and vocally, and it is all the better for it. Who knows what it means though. What does it mean to Carry Fire? Does it relate to our pre-industrial ancestors, moving fire from one settlement to the next? Submitting the phase to Dr Google, it comes back to “carrying the fire” – a phrasing I haven’t come across before – which relates to hope for the human race; “though the world seems all but over, as long as someone is alive and trying to thrive, they’re still carrying the fire, which means the human race still has hope”. Maybe it’s that? And if so, what a great concept! Reading the more timely review for the album at music.nz, apparently it is about commitment, and holding the flame even when it burns your hands. Which I guess is a pretty similar concept, although perhaps not in specifics. My main point here, however, is that other than being on Spotify, my only further bit of beef is that the lyrics aren’t supplied. Maybe it’s my aging ears that are hindering hearing the lyrics during the noisier songs, but this would have aided greatly in my appreciation of the album.
Anyway, I digress. Back to the positives. I also really like ‘Side On’. It is a bit rocky, as mentioned earlier. It’s actually a bit Datsuns-y. But it also has enough of a point of difference to make it interesting. But what does it mean? Again, I don’t know… there is a later song called ‘Sideways is King’. Does the band just have some weird obsession with sides?
Overall, this is a great debut. I understand that this is a collection of earlier songs, recorded over a fairly long period, and as such, I look forward to what comes next. And what I really hope (besides being available on Bandcamp, and having lyrics) is that the band keep looking for that point of difference, because that is where they are at their best.
