The voice of Peter Milton Walsh is one of those that always stops me in my tracks. I took a chance on A Life Full of Farewells in the Nineties, finding it in a record shop and knowing very little about Walsh. It's a gorgeous record, and one which has thankfully been reissued, and even more thankfully, Peter Milton Walsh is still making music as The Apartments.
The group's new record is called That's What The Music Is For and it is by turns sly and elegant. The compositions here favor Walsh's honeyed vocals, usually set against deliberate and precise chamber pop instrumentation. Opener "It's a Casino Life" sounds enough like early numbers from The Blue Nile to convert a few of that band's fans, while "A Handful of Tomorrow" is modestly spry, with Walsh mourning: "You can't save me from myself." It's a bracing cut, but also one with the sort of down-tempo tunefulness that's anchored everything from this band very close to my heart. The ode to loss "Another Sun Gone Down" is peak Apartments, which is to say a bit mournful but resilient in the face of despair. The song, like so many by Peter Milton Walsh, has a sort of graceful slide into sadness which is really intoxicating since the music is smart, and wonderuflly arranged. And when Walsh sings: "I'll see you in the fallen leaves / In songs I'll one day sing", a listener could be forgiven for just letting this song wreck them a bit. This is, as always, the band to reach for if you want a good cry into your drink, you know?
Given the richness of That's What The Music Is For, it's worth mentioning here the players on this record -- Tim Kevin (guitar, percussion, piano, melodica, backing vocals), Nick Kennedy (drums, maracas), Adrian Workman (bass), Natasha Penot (vocals), Jeff Crawley (trumpet), Neysa May Barnett (vocals), Pauline Drand (guitar), and Xavier Guéant-Mata (guitar) -- as they give That's What The Music Is For a robust sound that fleshes out Walsh's vision. What could be simply morose musings, is really more like chamber pop of the highest order. Take one listen to the title track and hear how each piece of this, from vocals, backing vocals, to piano and guitar, conspires to create a mood of absolutely beautiful sadness. It's gently overwhelming, frankly. The talents of all involved here hit a peak on "You Know We're Not Supposed to Feel This Way", the epic album closer. The music swells and Walsh implores with all his heart and the effect is, like on the best Apartments albums, utterly transfixing. I can think of very few currently active artists who have quite this same level of heartfelt appeal.
Peter Milton Walsh was in an early iteration of The Go-Betweens. In fact, I was likely drawn to The Apartments because so much of their output in earlier years sounded like stuff like "Hope Then Strife" from The Go-Betweens. That's a lazy way to get to the heart of the appeal of The Apartments. And that's because it feels like I'm one of many reviewers who've been singing the praises of this band for a long time. It's fine if The Apartments remain little known because it only adds to the preciousness of the material. Each record feels like a souvenir for members of a little club, and That's What The Music Is For is certainly like that. While portions of this are more broadly pitched and brighter than some Apartments efforts, the overall vibe is one curated by Walsh to suit his unique talents, and it's the kind of thing that still pleases me enormously. For those in that secret club I've described, and for those who may want in, That's What The Music Is For by The Apartments is very highly recommended.
That's What The Music Is For by The Apartments is out on Friday. Details below.
[Photo: Kate Wilson]