Havilah

This is the fourth full-length release by critically-lauded Australian mavericks, The Drones. The splendid isolation in which Havilah was created lies in the foothills of Mt. Buffalo. Havilah, like everything The Drones have done, is an album of contradictions, where bombast meets beauty, melancholy wrestles with violent guitars and singer Liddiard's incendiary voice lights up his angular poetry, this time on the nature of, in no particular order, the moon ("Penumbra"), divorce ("The Drifting Housewife") and the acquisition of god-like power and the Vanuatu cult of John Frum ("I Am The Supercargo"). It's an album that's brimful of the innovation and artistic integrity that has made The Drones one of Australian rock's most critically-acclaimed acts here and overseas. There are vaguely familiar nods to Neil Young's paint-stripping guitar spasms on "Supercargo" and "Oh My," while the deliciously meandering pop dirges of Suicide and the Velvet Underground echo in "Careful As You Go" and "Luck In Odd Numbers." It's melancholic, certainly, but Havilah, in its tone and its delivery, is also a celebration. It's a more positive statement than its predecessor. Once you've been around these 10 songs for a few hours, it's not hard to make up your mind about them. They are bold, they are romantic, and they are dangerous.