Much-previewed and eagerly awaited Album #3 from acclaimed Australian guitarist Hamish Anderson.
Release Date: 11th October 2024
Label: Self Release
Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital
drip fed with teasers
He’s a tease, is our Hamish. It’s been almost six months that he’s been keeping us on tenterhooks, drip-feeding us with snippets from his incubating 3rd album, Electric. We had our first taster in May, when we raved and drooled over the album’s lead single, Late in the Evening – and that was just the start of the build-up process; the singles followed thick and fast – the Beatles-sounding You’re Mine arrived in July, the ZZ Top-channeling Stir Crazy in August and the soulful, blues-rock, So Alive popped up in September. To cap it all, a 5th single, the brooding power ballad, brighter Days has just hit the airwaves – or the ether, if you prefer – to herald the long-awaited album into existence. Yes, folks, Hamish Anderson’s Electric is with us at last.
Originally from Melbourne, Australia and, since 2014, resident in the USA, guitarist Hamish Anderson has developed quite a reputation for himself. His signature sound has its roots in the blues, but he’s a willing voyager into loud power-chord territory and he’s equally comfortable when he’s picking out precise licks of the more folky variety. He’s toured extensively, both in his native Australia and around the US and his CV reads like a Who’s Who of the electric guitar – he’s opened for, amongst others, names as legendary as Los Lobos, Robert Cray, Steve Stills and even BB King, for whom he provided the opening honours on the great man’s last ever live performance.
influences worn proudly
Hamish makes no secret of his admiration for his 70s heroes and the influence of the likes of T.Rex, The Faces and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac are all readily-identifiable in his music and not just through his guitar playing, either. Vocally, he’s something of a chameleon, too and, throughout Electric, the passionate inflections of John Lennon, the grit of Rod Stewart and a confident assuredness that is all Hamish’s own are all detectable at one point or another.
Electric was recorded mainly between tours supporting Gary Clark Jr and George Thorogood & The Destroyers in 2023. Most of the cuts are live-in-the-studio with Hamish backed by his touring band – Lauren Stockner on bass and Pete Marin on drums. The sound is tight, energetic and immediate; there isn’t a rough edge anywhere in sight and, whenever the situation merits, the sound is sweetened by the strings of Jessy Green and the keyboards of Jerry Borge. It all adds up to an exhilarating and satisfying listen.
the singles
By design or coincidence, the five singles are the album’s opening five tracks and it’s July single, You’re Mine that gets Electric airborne, with its strident drumbeat and gorgeous slide guitar licks. Hamish tips a hat in the direction of John Lennon, both with his lyrics (“I know that I’ve been wasting time, too afraid to ever speak my mind, but now, I just finally know that you’re mine”) and his vocal delivery, and the fuzzy guitars in the background complete the sought-after 70s sound.
May’s lead single, Late In The Evening is next up. Hamish described the song as “A love letter to the electric guitar” and voiced his intent to “…create a big, unapologetic rock song,” when the song was being created. That’s an ambition that has been fully realized; with its glorious, soaring guitar solos, chugging rhythms, vibrant drumbeat and solid bass, Late in the Evening is a rock song in every sense of the word.
If you’re a fan of the driving Texan boogie of ZZ Top, you’ll love Stir Crazy, yet another of those preview singles. I’ve previously described the sound as: “…80s-sharp with a small coating of 70s mud to add authenticity” and I’ll stick by that description. With his lyrics, Hamish relives the desolation of COVID lockdown and lines like: “Locked down; nobody make a sound, there’s nobody on the streets. Strange times, messing with your mind, feelings repeat” bring the despair of that – now scarcely credible – period back into sharp focus.
influences
And the singles keep on coming. So Alive was apparently influenced by Keith Richards, Lenny Kravitz and Alabama Shakes and it’s one of the album’s true highlights. It’s one of the more soulful songs on the album – I’m reminded of Free or Bad Company – but, fear not, the searing guitar solos and powerhouse drums haven’t gone away – they’re just reined in a little, that’s all. And the guitars are edged back just a tad further for Brighter Days, the current single, and, in that relatively restrained state, Hamish comes up with what might just be the best solo on the album, and Jessy’s strings help to emphasise the restraint on a well-crafted song.
Pale Moon Interlude is exactly what the title suggests – a brief opportunity for Hamish to play a brief and relatively unadorned bluesy guitar lick, before he gets back down to business with the solid, sultry, Steal Away. The band are well-disciplined and there are some touches of piano and organ, as Hamish delivers another of his Lennon-a-like vocals.
more reminders
I’m immediately reminded of Cream and I’m So Glad by the rocky Pain. Fuzzy guitars fill any discernable gaps left by the driving drum/bass rhythm and, when Hamish kicks in with his slide guitar – Glorious Cacophony! And it seems that anyone with a rock ambitions has, somewhere along the line, had a go at covering Ron Davies’s It Ain’t Easy. David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust version is probably the best known of the lot, but creditable versions have also been committed to vinyl by, amongst others, Long John Baldry and Dave Edmunds. Hamish’s version is right up there with the best; the band provide the rigid framework around which he weaves his slide guitar magic and, altogether, it’s a sharper and more startlingly vivid interpretation of the song than anything Ziggy managed to cook up.
power ballad magic
Hamish has already demonstrated how comfortable he is with a power ballad and, with Everybody, he repeats the magic before, as it reaches its conclusion, Electric goes into overdrive. Breakup song, Strangers is, perhaps, my pick of the entire album; it’s a song that has – quite literally – everything, from strong lyrics, engaging melody and solid riffs and rhythms to yet another breathtaking guitar solo. And I love the way that Hamish underlines his “You and I are now strangers” line with guitar figure.
And, to conclude this pulsating album, Hamish pares things right back for closing track, Sweet Dreams. Indeed, he needs only a strummed acoustic guitar for the first couple of verses of a gentle song in which he reassures us: “For every tear you cry, there’ll be a time you smile. Bad days will come and go, it only takes a little while.” With his gruff vocal backed by a few pensive guitars and some sweetly-swirling organ, it all wraps things up kinda neatly, don’t you think?
Watch the official video to You’re Mine, the album’s opening track, here:
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