MITCH DILLON’S COMPULSIVE RAMBLERS

MITCH DILLON’S COMPULSIVE RAMBLERS

RAGGED GUM RECORDS

Melbourne musician Mitch Dillon has been around the local scene for a while now, backing up other artists and fronting Attractor Beams, a much-missed band who wore obvious influences such as The Replacements on their sleeves. 

Now stepping out on his own with backing band the Compulsive Ramblers, Roger Bergodaz (Lost Ragas) being the desk and Van Walker in the producer chair, Dillon displays a remarkable maturity of writing and singing on this debut solo album. The Replacements still haunt the walls of these songs but now they reside more in the shadows as Dillon’s songs take on wider influences, greater depth and more nuanced tones and textures. Heartache and heartbreak still occupy the air as he draws on the melancholy of Richmond Fontaine and the melodic alt-country of Wilco. 

‘Do You Want Me To Forget’ sounds like a lost classic, complete with a blossoming Clemons-style sax solo. ‘Play With Me’ leans into countrified power-pop and closer ‘The Land’ is an epic roll down a wide open road as he sings of ‘the land that we adore’. Mitch’s piano is as much a feature as his guitar playing, right across the this impressive release – another landmark of Australian alt-country music.

Chris Familton