To (badly) paraphrase Mark. E. Smith, what is it with Australians in Europe? And especially Berlin? After all, Nick Cave’s solo career and the Bad Seeds were birthed in a narcotic haze in the city and a little later Robert Forster recorded his much-overlooked post-Go Betweens debut ‘Danger In The Past’ there under the auspices of fellow Aussie/ Bad Seed Mick Harvey. Now, another trio of suave and dangerous Antipodeans called DEVASTATIONS have recorded their debut album ‘Coal’ in the illustrious, once-divided city. Surely it can’t the smell of Braunkohl wafting over from the end of the Cold War, can it?
Whatever the thinking behind the German-Australian alliance, though, it’s undeniable that it’s produced a dark and handsome pop classic of murderous intent. Not for nothing is the album named ‘Coal’ because the characters in Devastations’ songs are black of heart and spirit and none of them seem far away from being cast into oblivion and/ or the void.
Yes, I realise I’m hardly painting a picture of pop heaven here, but trust me: providing you enjoy a noir-ish twist or three to your plot, you’ll love ‘Coal’ and its’ dark, rhythmic and semi-orchestral set-pieces. Actually, you know you’re onto a good thing straight away, when bassist/ vocalist Conrad Standish’s red-wine-and-gitanes voice slurs through the first line (“The wine may have loosened my tongue, but you’re gonna thank me later on”) of tremendous opener ‘Sex And Mayhem’. It continues on to build into the kind of towering lamentathon full of velvet-y strings and Spanish guitar breaks that can’t fail and sets the scene for a dark night of the soul you’d be foolish to pass up, regardless of the consequences.
Tracks like ‘The Night I Couldn’t Stop Crying’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Lose You Tonight’ continue to up the emotional ante. With the former, winning funereality is never more than a bottle opener away (“I pissed it all away on the night I couldn’t stop crying” sings a candid, but rueful Standish), while ‘I Don’t Want To Lose You Tonight’ is a lovely, string-kissed ballad imbued with dignity but also an ever-present frisson of danger.
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The title track, meanwhile, apparently finds the band on e-mailing terms with the Grim Reaper. It opens with Standish singing “My Mother, she was a whore/ she was lost before I was born”, and while the band and pianist Kiernan Box flesh out the savagely melancholic backing track it gets worse as Standish sings “he said hold on, hold on/ and then kicked away the chair.” Bloody hell. One can only hope this ain’t (auto)biographical.
Guitarist Tom Carlyon takes over lead vocal duties on several cuts, but while his equally charismatic vocal is perhaps dark green rather than Standish’s relentlessly pitch black Tindersticks-style croon, he’s barely less fatalistic on tracks like ‘Terrified’ or the marvellous ‘A Man Of Fortune’: a croonsome duet with Maori vocalist Bic Runga which finds room for Fender Rhodes and a gloriously fitting string arrangement. It’s lush and perfectly poised and could well be a hit in a fairer world. Meanwhile, ‘What’s A Place Like That Doing In A Girl Like You?’ suggests that maybe Devastations have a tongue secreted in their collective cheek as well as 6” gold blade stashed in their pocket after all. Not that the tune’s stealthy creep with a tendency to erupt is anything less than quintessential murderous Devastations, of course.
But then who’s complaining? Sure, ‘Coal’ is hardly an emotional walk in the park, but it’s dark, romantic and brooding in all the right ways and – as mature pop albums go – is an edgy, magnificent mini-masterpiece that these boys will do well to top in the future. It’s no doubt already been used and it’s a cliché, but for once it’s valid in summation: Devastations really are devastatingly good. Over to you, Messrs. Cave and Staples.
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