“Naked Soul” is ex-Woodshedders frontman JAMES MACDONALD’S third solo album, and the follow-up to the immortally-titled “Elevator Music For Unrequited Lovers.” Not a title you’d forget in a hurry in anyone’s language.
“Elevator Music…” indulged this Sydney-based artist’s chamber-pop aspirations with a series of lush arrangements encompassing everything from tubas to cellos and pump organs to banjos, but – as its’ vulnerable title suggests – “Naked Soul” is a rather more organic affair, with Macdonald mostly working these 11 songs up from predominantly acoustic starting points.
That said, it’s hardly a “Pink Moon” or a “Nebraska”. Indeed, Macdonald’s dextrous flair with all manner of instruments (bass, electric piano, Hammond, flute and more as well as the obvious acoustic guitar) works beautifully when combined with producer/ drummer Nicky Bomba’s crisp and subtle rhythmic backdrops and Deb Cotton’s strategically-utilised backing vocals.
Opener “Ordinary Life” gives you some idea of what to expect. It’s a wistful, semi-acoustic set-piece with a tangible Neil Finn-style sway to it and MacDonald enjoying the space in the arrangement to show off his impressive vocal prowess. Bomba produces with clarity, the chorus is suitably anthemic and slowburning and the melancholic trumpet serenade is a memorable touch.
In fact, while by no means intrusive, the shadow of Neil Finn often hovers over Macdonald’s songs, not least on the yearning “Alive” and the dreamy and sumptuous “Surrender”. Nonetheless, there’s enough of Macdonald in here to ensure “Naked Soul” stands solidly on its’ own two feet and indeed he steps out confidently on the credible white-boy soul/pop of the title track, the breezy swing of “I Know A Place” and the jazzy, late-in-the-evening “I Will Be There” which – even down to the Jacko Peake-style flute – recalls the laid-back vibe of some of Paul Weller’s early solo work.
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And it’s to Macdonald’s credit that even when he tackles (cough) ‘issues’ he avoids the usual egg-on-face scenario. For example, on “Sometimes I Feel” he addresses the children overboard fiasco (“the cameras rolling as the boat goes down/ the politicians’ gain is someone else’s pain”) but remembers to marry it to a tune with knockabout buskabilly vigour akin to an Antipodean La’s. “Smoking Gun”, too, could easily get mired in quicksand with its’ Bush vs. Saddam subject matter, but thanks to a well-observed lyric (“I’ll play Robin to your Little John, Cisco Kid and Hopalong/ we’ll rid the world of every wrong”) and an evocative musical backdrop featuring madcap Barrelhouse piano, he ends up turning in one of the album’s very best tracks.
Imbued with a lightness of touch you wouldn’t often equate with Laughing Outlaw’s tougher, garage-inclined releases, James MacDonald’s “Naked Soul” is likeable from the word go, but reveals its’ inner strength and depth with repeated plays. It’ll grow on you very pleasantly indeed.
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