★★★★☆
Lower Plenty make a statement right from the opener of their new album,Sister Sister. ‘Bondi’s Dead’ sees Al Montfort contribute an effortlessly ebullient number – the music is so approachable that the lyrics shine, and as oblique as they are, they tend to linger long after they’re uttered.
Guitarist/vocalist Jensen Tjhung deals in heavy romanticism – ‘Glory Rats’ sounds like rural American melodrama, in the best sense. A proclivity for crooning betrays a wounded yearning, and the words roll out with hazy imagery, partly psychedelic and partly pastoral.
Sarah Heyward leads ‘So It Goes’, an amazingly executed Eastern-inflected song that’s both hooky and freewheeling. The unique tone of Heyward’s voice and the direction of its melody is instantly arresting. A counterpoint is created by the ragged droning of the sarangi, a bowed instrument Montfort acquired in India. Combined with Daniel Twomey’s perfectly measured percussion, the song takes on an earthy, natural characteristic that’s rare to come by and hard to explain.
These songs can be singled out for the fact that together they exemplify the unbound approach of Lower Plenty, and what they can place within their blurry confines of pop music.
Lower Plenty’sSister Sisteris available now through Bedroom Suck/Omnian.
