He’s a hard one to describe is Corby. Superficially he’s a singer- songwriter and writes nice piano-led tunes. But they’re too clever to be called pop and not heavy enough to be called rock; not quite cool enough to be cool but too cool to be bland.

His last album, Telluric, had a similar quality. We expected it to be dull but it wasn’t. It’s like he’s a bit subversive, pretending to play pop but adding unexpected twists and depth.

Opener Light My Dart Up — dart being Australia for cigarette (though Old Dart means England) — is a slow tune, with Corby sounding a bit Richard Hawley, his voice deep and slow. He changes tack completely for the next song, No Ordinary Life, which is a more dreamy song, with a lovely piano tinkle and Corby’s voice almost falsetto in places.

All That I See goes more soulful/funky, a trend that continues with Get With The Times.

Corby and his buddy Alex Henriksson hang out and jam — Henriksson gets co-credits on two songs — and much of the album sounds like it started out as a jam, none more so than the title track, which closes the album: we’d bet they started with the laid-back drum track and went from there. Other songs are more piano-inspired.

Rainbow Valley is a chilled, soulful song — though so is most of the album.

It’s summery, laidback pop and cleverly constructed. If you want a fault, there’s little variation but Corby is a class act.

 

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