Every now and then an album comes across the desk that is simply just a great album. You do not have to think about it any harder than that. This is what Charles Jenkins has delivered with `Blue Atlas`.
Charles comes with a heritage. If your memory can go back 25 years, there was The Mad Turks from Istanbul. In the 90s, it was all about fronting Ice-Cream Hands.
On ‘Blue Atlas’, suddenly it all comes together. Jenkins always had pop sensibility, but with this album he has managed to built each song around a hook, operate in a music directorial role with additional sounds (Glockenspiel on ‘Rolling Into Houston’, harmonica on ‘When I Was King’ or accordion on ‘Maria Van Dieman’.
‘Blue Atlas’ is immediately captivating, right from the get-go when Jenkins becomes the storyteller on track one, ‘Shelley Winters’. I was drowned by Montgomery Clift/And knifed by Robert Mitchum/So to be strangled by Ronald Coleman/Was nothing new/I’m Shelley Winters/I’m Shelly Winters tonight.
On ‘Rolling Into Houston’, the Atlas Strings musical punctuation recalls a Beatles moment. Jenkins and band with Jimi Maroudas and Ric Morgan co-produced this album, and I can’t but help some conjuring up of George Martin sounds gone by may have been a deliberate ploy. Then when we get to ‘Caravagaggio, My Wife & I’, ‘Blue Atlas’ becomes an orchestral epic.
The melody of ‘Across The Nullarbor’ reminds me slightly of the Dragon hit ‘Get That Give’. If radio had it together, this would be the focus track. How ironic to hear Charles singing ‘I can’t find anything on the dial now/across the Nullarbor’. ‘I can’t find anything on the dial now’ summarizes Australian commercial radio and their attitude to artists like this. This album is perfect for The Vega’s and Triple M’s of the world. It’s sad that by targeting lowest common denominator, an artist like Charles Jenkins goes right over their head.
‘No Fun (Johnston Street)’ keeps it local for the Melbourne crowd but he balances out the territory with ‘Trees of Brisbane’. The two tracks are opposite dimensions of the Charles Jenkins sound, the former, the upbeat, the latter, the laid-back.
‘Blue Atlas’ is a real talent playing real music. It is an album in every sense of the word. You will play it from beginning to end, and then again.
Track Listing
1.àShelley Winters ?
2.àRolling Into Houston ?
3.àCaravaggio, My Wife And I ?
4.àAcross The Nullarbor ?
5.àThe Stenographer's Blues ?
6.àNo Fun (Johnston St) ?
7.à Autumn Fall ?
8.àTrees Of Brisbane ?
9.àWhen I Was King ?
10.àMaria Van Diemen ?
Watch the video for Shelley Winters:
