Not since Bill Corgan’s ‘Today’ combined the perky mechanics of self-mutilation with a cheery pop aesthetic has the notion of suicide and alienation seemed such a gently attractive lifestyle choice. Slacker, stoner – call it what you will, it usually arrives gift wrapped in a similar kind of envelope. It might come with a beercan delivered by a nitemare hippy girl called Polly, by an entire daydream nation reeking of teen-spirit or even by a black hole sun. It might even turn up like this; like the bittersweet aroma of charred wood arriving on a sea breeze on Fistral Bay.
For those who don’t know, Angus Stone is the male-half of Australian brother-sister act, Angus and Julia Stone – loved by all manner of hirsute bands, including The Magic Numbers. He is the handsome, if slightly bedraggled surfer-dude one and she is the devastatingly pretty one who wears dresses. Together they do soft and shuffling acoustic songs in the mould of Joy Zipper and Tom McCrae – a sound dominated by whispers, dabbling percussive noises and the occasional snap, crackle and pop of a cosy beach-fire. Only this time he’s ditched the dresses.
Described as revealing a ‘darker more contemplative side’ of his usual rhythm and booze, ‘Smoking Gun’ sees Angus increasing the momentum of the traditional soft/loud stoner binary. When it’s soft, it’s very very soft (as on the gorgeously uplifting ‘Lady Sunshine’) and when it’s loud it’s deafening (as on the growling, zeppy blues of ‘White Rose Parade’). On the one hand it glides like a bird on the gentlest of thermals and on the other it snarls like a wolf, creeping from the chiming harmonics of sparse and cyclic fret-squeakers like, ‘Silver Revolver’ to the screaming, primal mannerisms of ‘Smoking Gun’ in less time than it takes to toast a marshmallow. Stone’s narcoleptic vocal, alternating between slurring boyish petulance and towering falsetto even adds a queerly religious flavour.
An album that threatens no end of stormy weather but ends up blowing only the kindest of sugar-kisses. More absorbing than any dry suit. Sweet yet existential.
‘SMOKING GUN’ ~ RELEASED APRIL 6TH 2009