Since I Don't Know When: A Review Of The New Album From The Moles

Richard Davies does things his way. Resolutely iconoclastic, the Australian musician has continued to craft brittle and lovely rock-and-roll from his home-base here in America. The rough and ready Composition Book is the new one from Davies' The Moles, and the results, while not quite the chamber pop of earlier Davies-associated offerings, are compelling indeed.

"Lost Generation" clatters like early Clean, while "Feel Like a Dollar" takes a hook and rides it around the stable. It's not nearly as bracing as "Since I Don't Know When", a lilting, Neil Young-flavored ramble that stretches forward and out into the sun. A good deal of what inspires Davies can be found in the back-to-back covers here on the record. "Tragedy" and "Had to Be You", both by The Bats from their seminal Daddy's Highway album, are given a different vibe here, but one which I'm sure the Bats would approve of.

Richard Davies is a singular talent. Those looking for Untune the Sky Part 2 are going to come up wanting with Composition Book. That said, the album is consistently engaging, and chock full of sharp hooks, moments of lyrical beauty, and crunchy riffs that seem to enter the tracks from every possible angle. Fans of the early records on Flying Nun will, however, love this album as every cut owes debts to early offerings from The Clean, The Bats (obviously), and even The Chills. That Davies manages to make this sort of stuff sing in the 21st century is testament to how he can take the pieces of guitar-pop and make them almost magical again.

Composition Book by The Moles is out this week on Splendid Research Records via Rockathon.

[Photo: Dawn Sutter Madell]