WHITLAMS
Format: CD Album
Released: Mon 1 Nov 1999
Catalogue Number: 3984297282
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LOVE THIS CITY
| Price: | AUD$22.32 |
To Order
* Prices displayed are in Australian Dollars and, where applicable, GST inclusive
Description:
So finally, it seems, Tim Freedman has a chance to make the album he’s always dreamed, with the budget and the push to match it. You’d expect him to be feeling the pressure.
“It wasn’t pressure because we’re now on a major label,” he explains. “It’s just the first time I’d ever made a record where people knew I was making a record, or people even gave a stuff!”
So was there are grand plan, for an album which in the end has been created on a grand scale? “Aw, I had no idea!” he laughs. “The record’s pretty schizophrenic because of that… hopefully it’s an album that takes you on a journey, rather than throws you around the cabin.”
So what do you do in this situation, stick to your roots and work on an album which has an easy familiarity that can only be created through collaborations with eccentric mates and associates in your local neighbourhood (inner western Sydney)? Or go for a full blown internationally produced opus of stadium proportions?
Freedman has decided to do both.
Looking over the extensive credit list for Love This City, you’ll see many familiar names. Bernie Hayes, brother to ex-Whitlam Stevie Plunder, appeared on Eternal Nightcap. Here he contributes not only backing vocals but a song of his own, “You Made Me Hard.”
Louis Burdett, a man Freedman made infamous with the line “Stop bagging out the band…” on Whitlams single “You Sound Like Louis Burdett,” plays raggedy drums as only he can (“I wanted to prove he’s a real person,” Freedman explains. “People seem to think he’s some French philosopher.”)
Freedman wrote “No Aphrodisiac” on Chris Abrahams’ piano (he had to make it up quickly, as Chris was asleep on the second floor). And now he’s using one of Abrahams’ songs from the same timeframe, and including the noted Sydney musician as an additional pianist.
“I said to the band, this record’s gonna be done like Eternal Nightcap was, where I’m going to use the people who are best for each distinct song,” says Freedman. “I just use a collective, just drawing on them and getting them to do what they do well. People re-appear all the time. Louis is on the first and the fourth, Bernie played guitar on the last one, and is singing on this one, Chris has been on the last three…”
Perhaps most surprisingly you’ll find the same songwriting team behind “No Aphrodisiac” also wrote new airplay fave “Chunky Chunky Air Guitar.” The fact that he wandered down the road to the home of Machine Gun Fellatio (an eclectic electronic collective which has just scored a deal of its own — look out world) to get help from mates Glenn Dormond, Matt Ford and Ross Johnston isn’t what’s surprising. It’s the song, which has about as much to do with No Aphrodisiac as the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage. It’s a frivolous, layered two chord funk rock workout.
“It’s my first ever throwaway pop chorus,” says Freedman. “It means nothing. There’s a strange surreal fairly tale story in the lyrics,” he adds, muttering something about a woman sold into slavery, a dream and a jailbreak. “There’s a story in there but you gotta look real deep.”
“Chunky Chunky Air Guitar” is so aggressively funky and upbeat that it’s almost unrecognisable as the Whitlams. But it’s a good indicator of the mood of the album.
As the name suggests, Eternal Nightcap was an introspective album for late-eve listening. Freedman makes no secret of the fact that he’s had a ball since he wrote that record, and that sense of exuberance is all over Love This City, from the playful doo-wop break down and cute pizzicato outro of “Make the World Safe” through to the rollicking, joyful feel of opener “Thankyou” (which must be the strollin’-est summer party song since the theme to Welcome Back Kotter).
The sheer groove of it all must in part be put down to the rhythmic work of bassists Alex Heweston (a legend in Sydney’s funk scene through his work with Swoop and the outrageously funky Professor Groove & the Booty Affair) and Terepai Richmond (ditto as low slung drummer for proto acid jazz outfit DIG). But the joy behind the writing is down to Freedman.
The constantly changing yet still cohesive melodic thread, and the Wilson-esque harmonic detail behind waltz time epic “Make the World Safe” is a good example of what’s on offer here. For all Freedman’s claims that he entered the album without a clue, there’s a load of musical ambition somewhere behind this.
If Freedman has stuck to his roots in terms of the musical family he’s involved here, he’s created a truly international sound as well. Freedman talks about the anti-gambling anthem “Blow up the Pokies” as a local issue wrought large. But listening to the huge production, with an uplifting string section to the chorus’s call to arms and timpani thrown in for good measure, you can’t help thinking ‘wrought widescreen’ is more like it.
With the help of ex-pat Brit producer Rob Taylor, and a stint recording in the US with silky smooth session pros Greg Morrow and Michael Rhodes and Yankee producer Joe Hardy, the Whitlams have a fine combination of polish and feel here.
Much of the album works this balance — intimacy delivered with the full force of the musical cannon available to todays recording artist. Love This City uses samples and rhythm loops up against vintage instrumentation, classic songwriting arrangements and genuine southern downhome feels.
And they’ve managed to keep it local, as the album title suggests.
Which brings us to the most obvious question. A slinky, jaded jazz number (featuring backing vox from first lady of Australian pop Marcia Hines) which questions the integrity of our fair Olympic city? As its protagonist counterpoints the mythology of Sy-de-ney 2000 with details of his own, less glamorous urban reality, this city looks like an over eager debutante tarting itself up in unnecessary chiffon for its coming out, perfect for the sanguine Dr John feel and ill voodoo sheen.
Is the title track a case of guts or gall?
“I started tryi
So finally, it seems, Tim Freedman has a chance to make the album he’s always dreamed, with the budget and the push to match it. You’d expect him to be feeling the pressure.
“It wasn’t pressure because we’re now on a major label,” he explains. “It’s just the first time I’d ever made a record where people knew I was making a record, or people even gave a stuff!”
So was there are grand plan, for an album which in the end has been created on a grand scale? “Aw, I had no idea!” he laughs. “The record’s pretty schizophrenic because of that… hopefully it’s an album that takes you on a journey, rather than throws you around the cabin.”
So what do you do in this situation, stick to your roots and work on an album which has an easy familiarity that can only be created through collaborations with eccentric mates and associates in your local neighbourhood (inner western Sydney)? Or go for a full blown internationally produced opus of stadium proportions?
Freedman has decided to do both.
Looking over the extensive credit list for Love This City, you’ll see many familiar names. Bernie Hayes, brother to ex-Whitlam Stevie Plunder, appeared on Eternal Nightcap. Here he contributes not only backing vocals but a song of his own, “You Made Me Hard.”
Louis Burdett, a man Freedman made infamous with the line “Stop bagging out the band…” on Whitlams single “You Sound Like Louis Burdett,” plays raggedy drums as only he can (“I wanted to prove he’s a real person,” Freedman explains. “People seem to think he’s some French philosopher.”)
Freedman wrote “No Aphrodisiac” on Chris Abrahams’ piano (he had to make it up quickly, as Chris was asleep on the second floor). And now he’s using one of Abrahams’ songs from the same timeframe, and including the noted Sydney musician as an additional pianist.
“I said to the band, this record’s gonna be done like Eternal Nightcap was, where I’m going to use the people who are best for each distinct song,” says Freedman. “I just use a collective, just drawing on them and getting them to do what they do well. People re-appear all the time. Louis is on the first and the fourth, Bernie played guitar on the last one, and is singing on this one, Chris has been on the last three…”
Perhaps most surprisingly you’ll find the same songwriting team behind “No Aphrodisiac” also wrote new airplay fave “Chunky Chunky Air Guitar.” The fact that he wandered down the road to the home of Machine Gun Fellatio (an eclectic electronic collective which has just scored a deal of its own — look out world) to get help from mates Glenn Dormond, Matt Ford and Ross Johnston isn’t what’s surprising. It’s the song, which has about as much to do with No Aphrodisiac as the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage. It’s a frivolous, layered two chord funk rock workout.
“It’s my first ever throwaway pop chorus,” says Freedman. “It means nothing. There’s a strange surreal fairly tale story in the lyrics,” he adds, muttering something about a woman sold into slavery, a dream and a jailbreak. “There’s a story in there but you gotta look real deep.”
“Chunky Chunky Air Guitar” is so aggressively funky and upbeat that it’s almost unrecognisable as the Whitlams. But it’s a good indicator of the mood of the album.
As the name suggests, Eternal Nightcap was an introspective album for late-eve listening. Freedman makes no secret of the fact that he’s had a ball since he wrote that record, and that sense of exuberance is all over Love This City, from the playful doo-wop break down and cute pizzicato outro of “Make the World Safe” through to the rollicking, joyful feel of opener “Thankyou” (which must be the strollin’-est summer party song since the theme to Welcome Back Kotter).
The sheer groove of it all must in part be put down to the rhythmic work of bassists Alex Heweston (a legend in Sydney’s funk scene through his work with Swoop and the outrageously funky Professor Groove & the Booty Affair) and Terepai Richmond (ditto as low slung drummer for proto acid jazz outfit DIG). But the joy behind the writing is down to Freedman.
The constantly changing yet still cohesive melodic thread, and the Wilson-esque harmonic detail behind waltz time epic “Make the World Safe” is a good example of what’s on offer here. For all Freedman’s claims that he entered the album without a clue, there’s a load of musical ambition somewhere behind this.
If Freedman has stuck to his roots in terms of the musical family he’s involved here, he’s created a truly international sound as well. Freedman talks about the anti-gambling anthem “Blow up the Pokies” as a local issue wrought large. But listening to the huge production, with an uplifting string section to the chorus’s call to arms and timpani thrown in for good measure, you can’t help thinking ‘wrought widescreen’ is more like it.
With the help of ex-pat Brit producer Rob Taylor, and a stint recording in the US with silky smooth session pros Greg Morrow and Michael Rhodes and Yankee producer Joe Hardy, the Whitlams have a fine combination of polish and feel here.
Much of the album works this balance — intimacy delivered with the full force of the musical cannon available to todays recording artist. Love This City uses samples and rhythm loops up against vintage instrumentation, classic songwriting arrangements and genuine southern downhome feels.
And they’ve managed to keep it local, as the album title suggests.
Which brings us to the most obvious question. A slinky, jaded jazz number (featuring backing vox from first lady of Australian pop Marcia Hines) which questions the integrity of our fair Olympic city? As its protagonist counterpoints the mythology of Sy-de-ney 2000 with details of his own, less glamorous urban reality, this city looks like an over eager debutante tarting itself up in unnecessary chiffon for its coming out, perfect for the sanguine Dr John feel and ill voodoo sheen.
Is the title track a case of guts or gall?
“I started tryi
Track Listing:
| 1. | Make The World Safe |
| 2. | Thankyou (For Loving Me At My Worst) |
| 3. | Chunky Chunky Air Guitar |
| 4. | Pretty As You |
| 5. | You Gotta Love This City |
| 6. | God Drinks At The Sando |
| 7. | Blow Up The Pokies |
| 8. | 400 Miles From Darwin |
| 9. | Time |
| 10. | Made Me Hard |
| 11. | High Ground |
| 12. | Unreliable |
| 13. | Her Floor Is My Ceiling |
| 14. | Here's No-one |
Availability
Estimated despatch 5-10 days after ordering.
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