I must admit, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Tales From the Sea when it arrived in my mail box. The Lockhearts’ new album is spread over two volumes. On both covers there’s an octopus with a menacing glare. I wondered whether I was in for a concept album, or perhaps a collection of sea shanties. What I got what some of the best classic rock music I’ve heard in years.
The first volume opens with “Hope,” an uplifting number with a bluesy Black Crowes feel. I loved its chunky guitars and the story the lyrics told of a young woman struggling to make ends meet but filled with optimism and generosity. The album takes a different turn with “The Way to Thunder Road,” is a big ballsy song about rebellion and yearning for adventure. I loved the next song “The Game,” a breakup number which decides to be brutally scathing rather than curling up in a ball. “If Time Was On My Side” made me smile with its jangly, semi-acoustic feel, harmonica, and fatalistic lyrics.
I settled in for the second installment and was caught off guard. It starts with “Low,” a dark brooding number about being consumed by depression and hate. It’s a great track, but also one that I struggled to listen to after the lightness of part one. “Detonator” is another song which celebrates the darker side, a big loud expression of frustration that my teenage self would have eaten up. However, many years have passed since I felt angsty, and I was wondering whether volume II just wasn’t for me.
“Hush” changed my mind. It’s a companion piece to “If Time Was on My Side,” a love song set against the background of the end of the world. It might just be my favourite song on Tales of the Sea. It reminds me a little of a Van Halen number, with big wailing guitars and vocal harmonies, and these great apocalyptic lyrics. “Meet You There Again” follows on so perfectly from “Hush.” The end might be coming, but in this song The Lockhearts sing of the kind of love that transcends time and space. And when it’s delivered with such finesse, you believe it.
No one’s making music like Sydney band The Lockhearts anymore. The members grew up listening to The Doors, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zep and they proudly wear those influences on their sleeves. Throw in a little ’80s rock and you’re somewhere in the ballpark. But there are reasons why the songs of these classic bands lasted. The Lockhearts might feel like a little bit of a throwback, but creating music influenced by that which has stood the test of time can never be a bad thing.
Tales From The Sea is out now.