REVIEW: CHILD – BLUESIDE (2016)

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Aussie jam band delivers something a little special

For a band so loose, it comes possibly as a bit of a shock that Child are so focused. But delve a little deeper into the history of the band and you find that this looseness was the focus.

There are so many things to like about Child, that in honesty it is difficult to know where to start. First, they are a three-piece and there is no such thing as a bad trio (this is fact and MV will not debate it) second, well, hell, second that if doom blues is a thing, then these cats from Melbourne have nailed it.

Frequently during this quite magnificent five tracker, MV found itself imagining some mythical world where Elder were a full-on blues band, but then, they don’t need to be because Child exist.

There’s a fuzziness here of the best psych rock too (check out the solo on “It’s Cruel To Be Kind” and then just consider the hoopla if it was some hotly tipped bunch of American’s who were doing this.

Some albums, some songs, are clinical and sound like that they’ve been almost literally made in the studio, that’s not what Child do, that’s not what Child are about. Instead, the reason these songs are perfect is that they are not seeking perfection, instead they are all about the vibe, take “Blueside Of The Collar” if there is an apocalypse, then they’ll be playing this at 3am in the morning at the after party.

That much was pretty obvious from the kick off of “Nailed To The Ceiling” – its rather unsettling opening, gives way to the soulful opening of the first verse, as singer Matthias manages to harness something that not many could tame.

“Dirty Woman” is appropriately grimy and slinks its way around in the bushes for eight minutes as it meanders about, and “The Man” works itself up into a lather for nearly 11 glorious minutes of blues, rock, funk and fuzz and if the feeling never leaves that whilst there’s nothing brutal about the band at all, they could without doubt inflict some serious damage if they wanted to.

“Blueside” is timeless in that it doesn’t have anything to give away that it is a modern record at all. Whatever era it was from, though, it would be hailed as a superb record. And, believe us, this is no problem child.

Rating 9/10

 

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