Paul Kelly - Ways Means (21 tracks) +Album Reviews

Two albums of strong songs

Nadyne Mielke | Mountain View, CA USA | 03/08/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Paul Kelly's previous album, "... nothing but a dream", was a sad album, melancholy and bittersweet. It talks about lost love and dying friends. "Ways and Means" is nearly a polar opposite of that album: bright, uplifting, cheery. On "Ways and Means", Paul Kelly tackles the ubiquituous love song. He noted that writing a happy love song is much more difficult than writing a sad one. But can Australia's best singer-songwriter inject something new into a track that is already well-worn? The answer is a resounding yes. I haven't been able to take this album out of my CD player in more than a month, and I can't imagine that will change anytime soon. The first single from the album, "Won't You Come Around?", is a raucous entreaty to a lover to come visit just a little earlier than originally planned. "To Be Good Takes a Long Time" is a rollicking song, reminding us that it's a lot easier to be bad than it is to be good. The saddest song on the album is "You Broke a Beautiful Thing", a not-entirely-surprised missive to someone who ruined a good relationship. If you're familiar with Paul Kelly, this album gives you everything that you want in one of his albums. If you are new to Paul Kelly, this album is an excellent introduction. This album showcases his lyrical genius and ear for a catchy (but never simple) melody. If you're not in the mood for such happy songs, then his previous album, "... nothing but a dream", is just as strong.For collectors who try to buy albums in their original country of release: do not buy the original Australian release. That album contains EMI's copy protection scheme that makes the album unplayable on many CD and DVD players. A friend sent me the Australian version. It won't play on three of my CD players, and routinely crashes my Windows 2000 computer."

Beautiful and Haunting Album for Adults

Paul Imseih | Sydney | 04/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The samples available for this album are a good taster of the beautiful guitar work and lyrical content by a unique Australian musician.

Anyone who knows life in country towns will instantly recognise the mood set by the opening track "Gunnamatta" - at once laconic and sparse with deep undercurrents of violence waiting to erupt from the boredom. This piece perfectly caputures life in country towns where racial tension, boredom, substance and physical abuse create a potent mix. Here the band nails it perfectly.

What is so magical about this album compared to Kelly's other works is the band he has managed to pull together. The guitar work by Dan Luscombe, Dan Kelly and Graham Lee creates shifting moods, broad cinematic soundscapes and simple workmanlike progressions when required.

Often in pop music one finds that lyrics and music have little connection with each other. I'd go so far as to say that this is a fundamental problem with most pop music.

Here however, Kelly and his band bring together the two components and the result is more than the sum of its parts. In "Little Bit 'O Sugar" for example, the song is built around a warm, broad slide guitar, slightly unhinged in its chord progressions and inconclusive. Here, Kelly uses simple repetition of lyrics around the idea of wanting some "sugar" but the musicians take centre stage to build the piece into a blistering, slow burning torch song. That Kelly gives the band a purely instrumental track as the opening track is testament to the importance they play as the tracks unfold.

On songs where the lyrics take prominence such as "Beautiful Feeling", the guitar work remains simple and sparse, but never derivative. Lyrically, Kelly is exploring many of typical modern contradictions of love and desire. In "My way is to You" he sings:

...

Many times I've stumbled

Many times I've fallen down

But always I had

The dream of your dear ground

My way is, my way is to you.

...

The love in these songs is gravitational, elliptical and earthly foundation. What takes them even further is the aural canvas created by the musicians accompanying Kelly's vocals.

Here then is an album of slow burning love and lust songs for adults. Not just a great Australian album, but a great album, period."

A stunning album

J.B. | NYC | 08/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first Paul Kelly album that I have ever heard. I had seen a few favorable (yet small) reviews in a couple different alt-country rags as well as in Rolling Stone, and decided to give this album a shot. I was absolutely floored the first time I listened at the combination of his heartfelt lyrics and the diverse, yet cohesive vibe of the song arrangements. At the heart of it all is Kelly's warm voice. From first listen, I saw a resemblence to the delivery of Richard Davies (who I'm guessing must be influenced by Kelly); my brother pointed out to me how he can sound like a more mature Damon Albarn (check out the "Great Escape-esque" bridge and chorus of "Beautiful Feeling"). What really keeps this album in rotation for me though is the restrained-yet-diverse guitar work. Elements of electric folk leads, swampy blues, acoustic strumming, surf, banjo, and country pedal steel are deployed perfectly. Capping it all off is highly complementary production from Tchad Blake that never buries the performances of the band.

I highly doubt that I will hear another album released in 2004 that will top this one. I look forward to exploring the back catalog of Kelly's long career."

A Big, Fun Record!

S. D. Fourmy | London, United Kingdom | 03/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Paul Kelly is Australia's most acclaimed singer-songwriter, though he is barely known outside of his native land. He is sometimes compared with Dylan or Springsteen, although this perhaps sets up false expectations. What can be said is that his style is closer to them than to the more `pop' approach of someone like Bowie. Since his early pseudo-punk records of the late 70s and early 80s, Kelly has produced a series of albums (some with his band the Messengers, but more recently as a solo artist) full of narrative style songs in the pop/ rock genre but with increasing country/ folk/soul/ bluegrass influence.

WAYS AND MEANS is the most band-orientated album Kelly has produced for some time, and subsequently has less of the singer-songwriter style to it than recent works. Thematically it can be seen as a riposte to the gloomy view of love and life depicted on his previous album, the delicate and beautiful NOTHING BUT A DREAM. This rather sombre album was a small and focused study structured with a careful musical and thematic progression (somewhat ruined in the US by the addition of the excellent, but incompatible, `Roll On Summer' EP). Its successor, by contrast, is happy and uplifting and is a sprawling work spread over two discs, lurching disconcertingly between musical styles, its organic and slightly chaotic feel captured in the broad strokes and clashing colours of the cover artwork. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the album works marvellously well as a joyous and often riotous exploration of love; while the music may ramble, the theme of love - sign posted on the cover - is adhered to throughout. But rather than indulging in the more predictable tragic love of much popular music, Kelly instead focuses his exploration largely on the happy side of love - a topic far harder to write well about. This makes for an album to warm the winter gloom, or to relax to on a summer's afternoon.

To set the mood, Disc One opens the album with the retro fun of a surf/rock style guitar instrumental that sounds like it is a lost Shadows track. We are then given a taste of the abruptly shifting musical tone of this record with the narrative style country-folk of `Oldest Story In The Book', followed by the bluesy rock of `Heavy Thing'. These three contrasting but equally excellent tracks make for a scintillating opening to the record, whetting the appetite for the rest of the album. But perhaps the highlight of Disc One, and one of Kelly's all time great songs, is the gentle beauty of `Won't You Come Around', with its delicate musical build-up, lovely guitar work and catchy chorus. This is a classic Paul Kelly song, reminiscent of his earlier work; indeed, it wouldn't sound out of place on his 80s albums with the Messengers. The rest of the disc continues the musical schizophrenia with the heavy rocking `Crying Shame' and the mad fairground piano of `To Be Good Takes A Long Time'. The set ends with the haunting `Nothing But A Dream', a precursor to the slower musical style that dominates Disc Two.

The second disc continues the theme of love, while adopting a more measured and coherent musical approach than the first. While this creates a different mood, one of greater introspection, it is no less successful, and contains some moments of tender beauty. Chief among these is the gentle and wonderful `Your Lovin' Is On My Mind', a song full of both sadness and joy. Other tracks adopt a more ominous sound, with the insistent acoustic and slide guitar of `Curly Red' and `My Way Is To You'. But there are still light-hearted moments, such as the self-deprecating `King Of Fools' and the fun of `Young Lovers'. The album finishes with another instrumental, the cheerful and vaguely nostalgic-sounding `Let's Fall Again'.

Overall, and unusually for Kelly, WAYS AND MEANS is defined more by its sound than its themes or lyrics. And in this it is a great success, managing to capture the obvious enjoyment of the musicians involved. This is probably Paul Kelly's best backing band since the Messengers, and they gel so well that they already sound as though they've been playing together for years. All of Kelly's albums over the past decade have been extremely good, but this is perhaps the most fun he has injected into a record since the light-hearted WANTED MAN back in the early 90s. While his last record, NOTHING BUT A DREAM, was a small masterpiece, WAYS AND MEANS is somehow too broad and unfocussed to receive the same accolade, but this does not make it a poorer record. If anything, it is more enjoyable. And as ever with Kelly's work, there is enough musical and lyrical depth to allow it to improve with each listen. Put simply, this is a fantastic record, and I can't praise it highly enough.

"

Beyond the shores of OZ.........

Kiwi | The Land of Enchantment | 04/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Where do I start? Paul is exceptionally talented and deserves a much larger audience for his inspiring tales of love and lust. I'm doing my best to get his aura spread out as far and wide as this Universe will take it.....I can't remove his cds from my player, neither at home or in the car. He sees things through eyes that are intuitive and thoughtful and it is obvious his heart is full even when it is empty. The melodies and the sounds are just breathtaking. The songs attach themselves to you and stay in your head for days on end. Yes, sometimes he is like Springsteen; yes, sometimes he sounds like Dylan, but mostly he is himself which is rhythm and blues on vegimite...... These songs are gifts to bounce off the soul.....These two cds are slower and full of thought and ponder. He still has the knack of calling a spade a spade but with more knowledge and wisdom sprinkled around the corners. I have always been a lover of good storytelling. Harry Chapin had that wonderful fill of taking a moment and inventing a story about it.... Paul does this too with great abandon. There is happy in life; there is sad.. Paying attention to his lyrics and style will bring a spring to your step and have you begging for more..... Paul is seeing life through the eye of an eagle and the mind of a Guru. It is what it is, and it is fabulous. Thank you Paul.... God Speed....."

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