Dan Sultan’s latest EPDirty Grounddraws together a collection of demos and outtakes from his latestBlackbirdrecord, all tracked in a single day.
The six songs actually have a lot more in common with The Beatles’ song of the same name, because here Sultan moves away from his soulful rock’n’roll sound to focus on raw, stripped-back folk music.
The title track is outstanding, an aching ballad co-written with Paul Kelly that manages to be both catchy and relatable. The same cannot be said for ‘Mountaintop’, which was co-written with Paul Dempsey. It sees Sultan’s beautiful, smoky voice pleading with the listener, but it also contains overly simplistic and repetitive lyrics delivered with a quiet hush, making it too sparse.
‘The Same Man’ and the piano ballad ‘Gullible Few’ originally appeared on Blackbird,but the former – written in Nashville – is offered here in an acoustic version. Both are solid inclusions to the collection.
Dirty Ground sees Sultan produce some mature, emotional and honest songs that will charm fans who like it best when he plays the humble storyteller.
3/5.
Dirty Ground is out now through Liberation.
