• Band / Artist : Anne McCue – mySpace
• Genre : Rock / Alternative
• Sample Track Download : Jesus’ Blood
• Buy CD : CD Baby
• Buy Digital Download : iTunes
• Rating : 7.5 out of 10

The Australian music scene is one that I’m not too up on. Apart from breakout bands like Savage Garden and the recently reviewed Youth Group, my last real investigations brought up Frente, a band that I think I heard on the Australian soap Neighbors, or maybe it was Home and Away. OK so now my nasty secret is out, but it was many, many moons ago. It was after a recent plea for international suggestions, that I was given a list of Australian acts and this is the first one I’m featuring.

I have to admit, although I listened to a few of her tracks on-line, when I got the album in, I kind of prejudged the album, based on the CD cover, thinking it was going to be a fairly light, whimsical pop album. What I found was something much deeper and not the bouncy pop record I was expecting. That’s not to say this is a dark and depressing album, it’s not, but it certainly has a more mature, rocky feel to it. In fact vocally there is a lot here that reminds me Sophia Ramos, but with a softer edge.

My favorite tracks on the album, “Coming to You” and “Jesus’ Blood” have a very strong acoustic feel, even though the latter has something of an odd lyrical slant. Another favorite of mine “Lay Me Down” has the hallmarks of some of the songwriting greats, including Crowded House and Squeeze. In fact to my mind, this would have been the kind of direction I would have liked the album to take. The rest of the tracks are great in themselves, but none of them really burst out, but this still makes for a very accomplished and entertaining album.

Conclusion : There’s obviously a huge untapped ocean of bands in Australia, the problems is finding them. If they’re all as good as this CD from Anne, it’s going to be a pleasure.