On Australian Dream, Concrete Sea take a swing at navigating and chronicling the suburban experience of living on this great continent in the 21st century and they do so impressively, via a baroque rock feel with a vivid poetic quality. 

Channeling the evocative storytelling of some of our masters – Paul Kelly, David McComb, Steve Kilbey and McLennan and Forster – singer, guitarist and songwriter Nick Elias paints jangly dark rock and acoustic alt-country tales via his deep, stentorian voice. It adds a sense of dry grandeur and commanding swagger as he delivers withering takedowns of many of the characters in his songs. 

There are references to the Royal National Park, the Manly Ferry, the South Coast township of Thirroul, Oxford St, Dapto, Star Casino and the Tasman Sea littered through the songs, adding musical timestamps and map locations to orientate the listener.

‘Caroline’ is stylistically adjacent to the post punk of a band such as RVG, ‘Generation Y’ skewers Millenials with dark humour and a sneer, ‘Paddington’ casts an eye back to the heady days of inner city misspent youth, ‘Body Surfers’ cleverly addresses a failing relationship and the excellent opener ‘Hotel In Thirroul’ documents Brett Whitely’s life and death. All in all a fascinating and absorbing collection of Antipodean songs.

CHRIS FAMILTON