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| Now, I’ve written plenty of liner notes for albums in my time, but never before for a single – but that’s what’s happening with the new Halfway 45 “Bret Canham’s Leather Jacket,” which is out now on Plus One Records – but then Halfway have made a habit of not only making great records but also presenting them beautifully, all the way down to singles with gatefold sleeves and even – gasp! – liner notes… |
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| I love Halfway. Right now, they are my favorite Australian band. It’s true I don’t really keep dibs on the scene these days, because I don’t have to, I’m not a rock journalist or anything and so I don’t even have to pretend I’m up with everything, or even anything – but I know what I like and I Iove Halfway. I’m still listening to their last album Any Old Love. I’m not really sure how the business works these days either, but the fact that Any Old Love wasn’t more widely celebrated (it’s a stone classic) suggests it’s not so different to what it ever was… From Brisbane, it’s a long way to go to Nashville to make a record that’s not very country, and very Rockhampton – but just as Grant McLennan, who was conspicuously also a Rockhampton boy, had to go to London to write “Cattle & Cane,” it’s often, as they say, only the road out of town that leads you back to find yourself. And that’s what Halfway have done with their new album, The Golden Halfway Record, whence the lead single “Bret Canham’s Leather Jacket” comes: it's a song cycle of bittersweet love that ends when you grow out of a troubled adolescence and fly the coop… Check it out: vinyl (45 and 33) through Plus One, and the album on CD or as a download through ABC Music. |
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