Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Every now and then a tune will come at you bearing gifts, the gentle hug of appreciation, the extreme lullaby of the taken opportunity coming at the listener with strength, guile and the beauty of the moving whimsical address; many will hit the nail of such serenades on the head, few though get the chance to drive the point home in one complete action, the swift delivery of the hammer to the cause.
It is in the judicious and complete honesty of James Reyne in the recording of Toon Town Lullaby, his first studio album in eight years, that the reflections of the artist and his observances of how society is arguably crumbling, decomposing, from the inside out. However, all is not lost, there is always the remaining creature that came fluttering out of the darkness of Pandora’s chest when all the scourges and wants had escaped to wreak havoc, that of hope, and it is in hope that the kiss offered by the artist and the gleam in the eye of the modern Muse is accepted.
Hope in Toon Town Lullaby comes in the guise of love and with lyrics that strengthen the appetite for that often elusive key signature of life with a purpose, hope that endures throughout the album, hope that makes the listener believe in that purpose filled existence.
Across tracks such as A Little Ol’ Town South Of Bakersfield, Low Hanging Fruit, the excellent and endearing Calamity Jane, The Tallest Man I Ever Knew, Last Great Love Affair, and the album’s title track of Toon Town Lullaby, the Australian lyricist moulds life from the air, takes the clay of observation and fashions responses to questions that are pertinent of the day and keeps the wits sharp, powerful, consuming.
In an album that urges towards thinking of the future, there is also in abundance of defiance that the past must also be honoured, that both states of existence must combine to make the present one of duty, honour, and the pleasure of seeing others smile, creating a sensation to which Toon Town Lullaby cannot but endorse as it bounds along enthusiastically and with absolute feeling and truth.
It may have been eight years since the studio and James Reyne were in cahoots, but the memory remains, and is taking in with deep breath and thrusting power in Toon Town Lullaby.
James Reyne releases Toon Town Lullaby on July 10th.
Ian D. Hall