Sunshine Ponies “Mixtapes & Soundtracks”
Label owner Scott Thurling and partner Sarah Halligan set their love to the music of the Australian powerpop meritocracy
-
Given the strap line you might think ‘Oh dear!’ but bollocks to that, Scott and Sarah have opened their hearts and embraced a wide selection of Australia’s finest. The results are brave, open and ultimately satisfying. Each track being a collaboration it’s more like a titular mixtape than a cohesive album and that is the point. It is supposed to reflect the excitement and rush that you get when you start to open up to someone and you want them to like the same things that you do. I’m pretty sure I fell in love with a girl just because she liked the Go-Betweens.
-
There’s quite a breadth; Adrian Whitehead contributes a gentle whimsical Beatlesque ‘Ballad of the Blue Butterfly #1’. In contrast, Mildsparrow’s ‘Chance Meeting’ is a short story intoned over a rudimentary backing; it serves up memories of the wonderful Chris Knox and there’s not higher praise then that.
The strength of the Australian scene is evidenced time and again. The cracked beauty of ‘Comeback’ featuring Paul Andrew from Lazy Susan, Broken Flight provide ‘She Steps on All the Cracks’ like an Aussie Woodpigeon putting strings, brass and a choir to work. ‘If Our Days are Numbered’ featuring D. Rogers and Emma Heeney is a kind of power pop with interesting vocal twists. A gentle modern folk sound from the Miller’s Tale gives ‘Crimson Love’ deep appeal, the collection gets stronger as you go through it (the trajectory of true love) so the 22 tracks skim by, track 20 ‘Tinsel Ponies (Boy)’ delivers the kind of girl pop being delivered by Best Coast of the Dum Dum Girls only here with Rachel Crossthwaite on vocals it’s not so concerned with hiding its charms as celebrating them. This is every bit as much a love letter to Scott and Sarah from the bands (and by extension to us) than it is to each other and as I’m writing this on Valentine’s it is a fitting record for the day.
Comments (0)