GENEVIEVE MAYNARD AND THE TALLBOYS – THE HOLLOW WAY

At the risk of seeming overly referential, if Australia were to claim its own incarnation of Neil Young, Genevieve Maynard would come pretty close to being the female embodiment. A dangerous call, but in this her third record since the disbanding of Stella One Eleven, and the first with her new collective the Tallboys, there is a distinct saturation of bittersweet melodics and a clarity of voice that hails from the singer-songwriter movement of the Laurel Canyon days. The textures here are a far cry from her indie-pop roots;  Maynard’s world-weary observations on love and modern mythology are nestled in rich woody textures, echoey telecasters and warm piano lines guiding Maynard’s strident folk voice through this refreshingly dark material. In Green Beads she sings of the remnants of a defunct religious sojourn – “its incense and nuances were lost on me… ten months asleep”, and in Cotton Wool she ruminates on dealing with the can-cour of dead love – “make it waterproof, spare the heartbreak”. Most affecting is Wolfboy, a highway haunt of the Mazzy Star ilk, punctuated by a truly rousing campfire vocal refrain, and the ghostly swells of The Sun, The Sand, The Sea. Maynard’s Tallboys play and sing these songs with all the whiskey-stained honesty they need, never over-playing the instrumentation, and the result is a clearly realized, genuinely moving record and by far the best songs of her career.

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