Powderfinger have been around long enough now to qualify as Australian rock legends. After their last album Vulture Street, released in 2004, the band said they were going to take some time out from the whirligig of the rock world. Since then, they’ve been raising families, sitting on the beach and releasing a best-of to keep the bank accounts ticking over.
But singer Bernard Fanning, who absolutely does not farm turkeys, just in case there's any confusion on the matter, obviously felt he had to get back to work. So he signed to Lost Highway, an Americana label home to Ryan Adams and Lucinda Williams, and has spent the last year working on his solo album, Tea And Sympathy. But don't worry, he's not replicating what Tim Burgess of the Charlatans did a couple of years ago, in relocating to the southern states and making his 'country' record. (People from Manchester, or Wales in the case of Cerys Matthews, really shouldn't write songs about whiskey bars and steel guitars.)
Fanning knows he's from Brisbane, so this is a simple, sunny slice of pleasant pop. Despite being heavily influenced by him, Fanning has never possessed the songwriting gifts of Neil Finn; but his solo work does bear comparison to The Finn Brothers' latest album Everyone Is Here in its acoustic, singalong optimism.
Also, does anyone know who Daryl Braithwaite is? A true-blue Aussie singer from the '80s who wrote basic songs with catchy choruses you might sing round a campfire. Fanning keeps his spirit alive with Wish You Well. A new Powderfinger album is on the way, where he'll no doubt get back to rocking hard.
