Amarillo
Eyes Still Fixed
Gaga Diji
Rooted in Americana but
possessed of an aesthetic wanderlust that sees the group cover a range of
styles over the album’s nine tracks, Melbourne quartet Amarillo’s debut LP
stretches out, drawing you in with Nick O’Mara and Jac Tonks’ vivid songwriting,
painting pictures of love, isolation, distance.
O’Mara’s guitar playing
(perhaps best known via fellow Melbournians Raised By Eagles, of which he’s a
founding member), is top notch, particularly his lap steel playing, easily
meshing with bass (Trent McKenzie) and percussion (Alex Rogowski). Tonks takes
care of the majority of the vocals, her voice strong and assured throughout, which
when combined with the deft instrumentation, stands Amarillo apart from the
myriad other Americana acts coming out of Melbourne at the moment. There’s an
adventurousness and a want to explore sonically that really defines this
record, really adding something extra.
Eyes Still Fixed follows on
from an acclaimed, eponymous EP in 2014, which along with shows around the
country (supporting Mick Thomas and Charlie Parr among others) and overseas has
seen this unassuming group hone their already impressive chops, the results of
which are laid bare here with an easy aplomb.
Samuel J. Fell
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