Our latest reviews
Atlas of Unknowns: Tania James
Sisters Linno and Anju are brought up by their grandmother, Ammachi, and their father, the good-hearted but somewhat bumbling Melvin, after the death of their mother, Gracie. They share an idyllic childhood and a close bond, but when Anju betrays…
Ways of Escape: Hugh Mackay
Academic Hugh Mackay has a distinguished career bringing sociology to the masses. His latest work, Ways of Escape, sees him turn his hand to fiction while still delivering his acute observations about contemporary middle-class society. The novel follows the…
The Bookshop on Jacaranda Street: Marlish Glorie
Fifty-something Helen Budd-Doyle has had enough. Her marriage is dead and she lives in a house crammed with ghosts. Her elder son Gabriel is in the army; the other, Vivian, has drifted aimlessly into a mining job up North. One…
Sweetheart Like You: Guy Davis
Davis’s sixth album for leading roots label Redhouse is an extremely enjoyable and varied collection of six originals and inspired covers from the likes of Leadbelly, Son House, Willie Dixon, Big Joe Williams and Bob Dylan. Davis is a fine…
And So It Went: New Thoughts In A Year Of Change: Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis describes himself as ‘a nervous union hack, a political bit-player, an edgy pontificating witness of earlier times’. He’s also the ALP’s truest believer, a man who affectionately calls his Party mates ‘comrade’.
He opens this book, the fifth…
Lost Channels: Great Lake Swimmers
I must admit that by the time I had completed my first sitting of the third album by Toronto band Great Lake Swimmers, I sat in silence as if still taking in what I wasn’t sure my ears had heard…
Love Is The Way: Eddi Reader
This Scottish singer-songwriter is a favourite of the Australian folk community. A regular visitor here over the years, she is a captivating live performer with a strong voice. Her albums haven’t reached the sales heights of her first band, Fairground…
Goodnight, Bull Creek: Bob Evans
Bob Evans (Jebediah’s Kevin Mitchell) gives us his follow-up to the award-winning Suburban Songbook.
Again recorded in Nashville, Goodnight, Bull Creek retraces his whimsical song-writing style but introduces us to a bigger sound full of more instrumentation, a harder…
Black Across The Field: Lucie Thorne
Largely unknown but highly talented Lucie Thorne was raised in Tassie, lived in Melbourne for a time and now calls the tiny hamlet of Bimbaya in the Bega Valley (NSW) home. This new album, recorded at her home studio, will…
Smoking Gun: Lady of the Sunshine
Last year Angus and Julia Stone released the terrific debut album A Book Like This; now Angus has decided to release a solo album (despite the strange name he has recorded it under).
The album has a similar loose…
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