Description
Albums from Australian band The Apartments don’t come around too often, the new one from Peter Milton Walsh and co is their sixth in a recording career which stretches back to the eighties. For those unfamiliar, they deal in a kind of doomed, romantic balladry, drawing from classic songwriters, evoking old black and white movies. Their songs are timeless, not wedded to any decade. The new album is very much a mood piece, not one to put on while out and about. It’s thoughtful, emotional music demanding you to sit, listen, and immerse.
From the opener Pocketful of Sunshine the band are on familiar territory here, with a little sunlight peeking through the melancholy as Walsh sings “you wanna start living again, if I could I’d put some blue sky in your head” over picked guitars, organ and a little woodwind. This is about as upbeat as it gets. The brooding Write Your Way Out of Town is built for staring out the window, with Walsh singing “hold on, that’s all I’m asking you to do” over gorgeous guitar lines. Equally on Where You Used To Be he equally laments “there’s a hole in the world where you used to be” before suggesting “ask me about goals, you know I don’t have any, ask me about dreams, you know I got plenty of them” over a bed of stately strings. What’s Beauty To Do? is reminiscent of The Go-Betweens, lines about how “I’d run through bullets for you” over guitar lines Robert Smith would be proud of. This aint music to dance to….but life – as we know it – has so many shifting emotions & we need the varied company of great music that fits the mood….
