|
WATCH ME DISAPPEAR (2008) "The simple fact is that Augie March songs are as mysterious as the Mona Lisa, cryptic as Highway 61 Revisited, and as beautiful as Rimbaud. There is no one in Australia, and possibly no one in the world, who writes lyrics that trip so poetically off the tongue as Glenn Richards. Let us all tremble in respectful awe at the majesty that is Watch Me Disappear.” "It has some of Glenn Richards’ most complex lyrical journeys, some of them genuinely moving for their craft as much as their heart, some brutal and almost inflammatory but always thought-provoking. There isn't another band like this in Australia. Still. I like that.” "Is there a more poetically beautiful band in Australia at the moment?” "The result is wholly satisfying, achingly beautiful and rewards repeated listens by old hands and newcomers. Lyricist and singer Glenn Richards proves once again that he is a rare, masterful wordsmith of great depth, charm and wit. Lush melodies wash luxuriously over the listener and Richards’ crooning vocals are entrancing.” "There can be no doubt by now that Glenn Richards of Melbourne band Augie March is one of Australia’s finest songwriters; the band’s fourth album, Watch Me Disappear, is a near-masterpiece of highly literate, emotive lyrics, gorgeous harmony-and-melody and a craftsmanlike approach to constructing songs from the brittle sections that make up their many parts. A landmark Australian rock album.” "There’s seriously nothing Augie March can’t pull off. Be exceptionally grateful.” "What Watch Me Disappear does is open the band to a wider audience. Augie March has certainly shifted its direction but the literary focus and intelligent folk pop remains.” "…Richards’ voice is beautifully recorded. Indeed, Watch Me Disappear carries some of his best-recorded vocal performances – he sounds relaxed, vibrant and brimming with confidence.” "Watch Me Disappear is one of the most unpretentious and purely likeable records of Augie’s career.” "Big beautiful horns and lush strings, Richards’ inscrutable as ever lyrics, delicate harmonies: an excellent step forward for the songwriter’s songwriter.” "The melodies, production and astonishing vocal delivery make this an album brimming with, whisper it, commercial potential.” "Led by the moans and whispers of Glenn Richards, this album is Australian folk-rock at its most impressive, firming itself as not only some of the best work of Augie March, but amongst the prime releases of its genre this year. From the opening tones of the title track to the whirlwind album closer, I was pulled through 11 tracks of sweet, driven melodies, drawn into a sound unfamiliar, yet instantly cherished. The album is plagued with great tracks, strengthening as it progresses and giving all indications that it will not only mirror the success of Moo, You Bloody Choir, but eclipse it. Watch Me Disappear is champagne Australian music. It outdoes the feats achieved by the band in recent years and assembles a line-up of tracks as good as any other Australian release this year. It succeeds artistically and establishes the turning of a new page for a band critically lauded. Listen to this album, purchase it, play it obsessively…it’s their best yet and will no doubt stir the second wave of Augie March fever.” "There’s no other band in Australia quite like Augie March. Literary rather than literal. More celebral than sweaty. Watch Me Disappear is possibly their most human offering – and is the better for it.” "Augie March is that rare breed of artist who continues to buck the trend with resounding success. Watch Me Disappear is dripping with the band’s infectious indie folk sound with a smack big band sound.” "Watch Me Disappear is a confident journey through lush instrumentation and juicy melodies.” "It’s a fine addition to an impressive body of work from one of Australia’s most consistent bands, ensuring they won’t be disappearing anywhere.” "The irony, of course, is that Watch Me Disappear will only push Augie March higher into the ranks of the great Australian bands.” "Watch Me Disappear is overflowing with melodies. A triumphant return”. 4 stars "Sublime for its honesty, vivid imagery, diverse stories and poetic sway.”
PREVIOUS RELEASES Australia's Augie March may be a tiny blip on the global radar, but that could all change if this second release, the mesmerizing Strange Bird, gets into the right hands. Fourteen tracks of pastoral beauty, labyrinthine arrangements, and breathtaking prose render the listener unable to take it all in one listen. Poetics, not poison, pulsates through the veins of Augie March’s music. Taking its name from a Saul Bellow novel, the band creates dreamy folk pop that’s as striking in its imagery as it is in its staying power. The group’s latest album, Moo, You Bloody Choir, is a collection of songs worth revisiting, each track exhibiting a classic sound that seemingly never goes out of style. Astonishingly, Strange Bird is every bit as smart as it is ambitious, Within the first four tracks, you will fall head over heels for the gorgeous “One Crowded Hour,” “The Cold Stare” and “Strangers Strange” - songs of such immense quality that it almost seems impossible for Richards and Co to maintain such high standards. But maintain them they do, and with much aplomb. The breathy “Honey Mouth,” whimsical “Captain Crackers” and the campy “The Baron of Sentiment” place Augie March firmly in the league of the great pop masters like Squeeze, XTC and the Kinks. Rarified company indeed but well deserved. "Strange Bird" (Spin Art) took two years to land in America, but the wait proved worthwhile. The band's whimsical amalgamations of saloon pianos, hopscotch harmonies, starry guitars and literary allusions span choral pop to flapper jazz, simultaneously invoking the grace of Jeff Buckley and the giddiness of the Apples In Stereo. Augie March is a band out to prove to you what is hauntingly gorgeous Strange Bird offers no clear answer to Augie March's puzzling For those of you familiar with this Stylus fave however, Moo You Bloody Choir will prove more a refining and continuation of the band’s brand of Outback cliff-gazing than a fresh start. Their adoration of antiquated song structures and Beatles-derived harmonies retains its luster here; there’s plenty of sky, sea-salt, and grit, sanded-down to a glass fine point in Glenn Richards’ jellyfish voice and the band’s well-honed arrangements. In short, Moo trades in the kind of ‘old-hat’ whose fabric still feels fresh, soft to the head and heart no matter how home-spun its origins. The passports say Melbourne, but Augie March hail from a far more In keeping with songwriter Glenn Richards' background as an English major, they make literate, studied music richly adorned with unexpected turns of phrase, both lyrical and musical. “..how to best describe a fantastical something that shuns all logical categorization?.. If you're skeptical, that's well understood; pop music this good -- the kind that summons ghosts from the earth while spinning in its own impenetrable orbit -- is so rare it often seems like it no longer exists. ” “If you haven’t heard them yet, you’re M.I.A., but the band’s third album, Moo You Bloody Choir, is as noble a starting point as any. For those of you familiar with this Stylus fave however, Moo You Bloody Choir will prove more a refining and continuation of the band’s brand of Outback cliff-gazing than a fresh start. Their adoration of antiquated song structures and Beatles-derived harmonies retains its luster here; there’s plenty of sky, sea-salt, and grit, sanded-down to a glass fine point in Glenn Richards’ jellyfish voice and the band’s well-honed arrangements. In short, Moo trades in the kind of ‘old-hat’ whose fabric still feels fresh, soft to the head and heart no matter how home-spun its origins. “ “Frankly, it's amazing that it took two years for these songs to reach the states-- those folks down in Australia already own an entire continent, so no need to hog the greatest music they produce for themselves as well, right? At any rate, it finally made it here, and is waiting to be heard. “ “Augie March’s valuable contribution: In confining themselves to familiar pop forms, and even limiting the actual notes they are using, they create music so beautiful and bursting with emotion that, after hearing it just a few times, it’s impossible to ignore.
Augie March, with their sophomore album and American debut, have Glenn Richards paints tragically precious portraits with sharp lyrical But the band tempers the undercurrent of misfortune with gorgeous Startling in its goodness, Strange Bird, the rich, inventive U.S. debut from Australia's Augie March, goes where few bands dare to tread. While the fragile melodies of Glen Richards effortlessly color the outfit's adventurous, sonic canvas, calling Augie March's approach art rock wouldn't be right. After all, you wouldn't mar XTC's Skylarking or the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin with such a tag. But Strange Bird is that brilliant and that adventurous. Strange Bird is a Technicolor pop opus that's so stuffed with ideas and instruments that it's wont to rupture from time to time My favourite of the year is Augie March's Strange Bird. I like going into a record shop and buying a record because of its cover alone - it feels like you're discovering it, stumbling upon it rather than having people playing it to you. It's a really eclectic album, sensitive, and in some places a funny album. You can tell that there's been more than one person involved in the writing process. You can hear they are heavily influenced by people like dEUS and Jeff Buckley. Just a really beautiful album.
Augie March are a quintet from Melbourne of jubilant, accessible invention, wrapping the enigmatic songcraft of singer-guitarist Glenn Richards in luxuriant melees of chiming guitars, mountain-stream voices and keyboard grandeur. There are fleeting airs of beguiling precedence -- Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks leading the Flaming Lips instead of Wayne Coyne; the Beatles' "White Album" as performed by Super Furry Animals. But on Strange Bird, Augie March's second album, the blend and glow are all their own. Singer/guitarist Glenn Richards has a poetic mind and a gift for emotional lyrics that recall Bob Dylan’s perceptive verse. Combined with the band’s pop finesse and moments of grandeur, Moo mames for quite an absorbing listen. On first introduction to the glorious slow build in hit “One Crowded Hour”, you’ll realize this band has the potential to become legendary. This Australian quartet’s wordy, robust third album is loaded with shimmering, tuneful drinking songs, such as “One Crowded Hour” Every year seems to bring at least one story of a very-good-to-great record that was nearly never released. This year’s belongs to Augie March. Augie March specializes in their own brand of moody, psychedelic, experimental pop music; like the Flaming Lipsand, to a certain extent, Wilco, they follow their own unique artistic path. Moo, the Aussie quintet’s third full length, is another finely crafted collection of dreamy folk pop that has a distinct, timeless quality to its sound. Just about every track is thick with lyrical poignancy, humor and heartbreaking imagery. Choir goes damn well with an empty bottle of whisky. Intoxicatingly verbose and imaginative, Augie March’s Strange Bird is aptly named. Summoning musical illusions to legions of UK pop, but sounding like none of them, Australia’s Augie March makes music inside its own snow globe. When shaken, the elements blend rockers like “This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers” with lighthearted abandon; upon settling, ballads like “Little Wonder” are dusted with wintry embellishments. It’s all far too involved for the mainstream – the words tumble from Glenn Richards’ mouth with no repetitive choruses or catch phrases – but those who crave unfettered intelligence and mystery in their pop music need look no further. "I'm yet to see a convincing counter-argument to my assertion that we haven't produced a genuinely great act in Australia for a decade or more, but I'm not alone in thinking that Augie March may well be the band we'll look back on in five or 10 years and say, yep, they were the ones. And in songwriter Glenn Richards they have a lyricist without parallel in Australia" " Their last album Sunset Studies was a masterpiece, like a delicate sepia photograph. This time around, the effect is in full colour...one of Australia's greatest and most under-appreciated bands" "...an album so rich, so crammed with ideas, so idiosyncratic, and certainly like no other record you will hear this year. Hugely special." "Strange Bird' is without a doubt, the best Australian album released this year and Augie March deserve all the accolades they are about to receive for it" "Another compelling work by one of the most original bands this country has produced" "While Augie March may not jump around, smash their instruments, and strut around like Iggy, there is more charisma and creativity in their somber song craft, than the sum of all the garage rock retreads....a timeless gem, in a disposable world." "Sweet relief. Rich, rewarding stuff from one of Australia's most important and eloquent bands" "...Strange Bird packs what feels like a huge body of work into 62 minutes. There's little laurel-resting and no fillers, the mood moving from somber and thoughtful through to foot-stomping exuberance" "another album to savour to the last bar" "Add some moments of mannered, artful surrealism, and this second album could indeed be called a strange bird, but its also a beautifully contrived, carefully wrought collection of songs that connect more each, every listen" "Aussies Augie March have always defied classification. And this second album doesn't make it any easier - poetic ballads, country sagas and whimsical instruments all turn up in a bizarrely beautiful mix" "Strange Bird was immediately engaging...it is the sheer inventiveness of the album as a whole that is its strength. Bravo" "But the Bird's ever-changing moods goes to show that these polite Melbourne guys are just the tiniest bit nasty on the inside"
|
||