NSW songwriter, singer and guitarist CJ Stranger has worked as a musician in musical theatre and played live with William Crighton and others but it’s his particular brand of cosmic Americana at the junction of psych rock, folk and country where he most impresses. 

CJ shares that rarefied air with the likes of The War On Drugs, Bob Dylan and Kurt Vile – fellow travellers who understand the possibilities of an expansive sonic palette and lyrics that blend the personal and poetically contemplative. On songs such as the new single ‘Author’s Script’, ‘Start Diggin’’ (complete with banjo) and ‘Bowerbird’, CJ’s acoustic playing really shines, even when on the latter it’s consumed and overwhelmed by electric dissonance. 

Elsewhere, the title-track has shades of Mark Knopfler in CJ’s clean soloing and, in contrast, ‘Grenfell’ sounds like a lo-fi back porch Antipodean folk song, with references to Henry Lawson. Capping off the versatility on show, CJ leaves the listener with the thrum and tumble, indie rock ’n’ roll sound of ‘Come and Go’.