Album Review: Augie March - Havens Dumb

Look, it’s Augie March – it’s never going to be uncomplicated. The near-default position of this most intelligent, most perfectionist, most irascible of bands would nearly always be to second guess and pick holes in each previous release as they dealt with the mixed blessings of being signed to a major label. So, they went on ‘hiatus’ – which many understandably read as ‘break-up’. Glenn Richards made the obligatory lead singer’s solo record, which didn’t quite satisfy, then moved to Tasmania – for cheaper rent as much as different perspective.

Eventually the band drifted back together, now free of contractual restraints, and have spent three years stitching this typically sprawling – but maybe even more utterly idiosyncratic – creation together.

As the cover suggests, an eye is often cast over the nation from Richards’ self-imposed St Helena – that title from Napoleon’s island of exile. Perhaps it’s most overt in Definitive History, bemoaning what a mean little country we may have become – but presented over a gentle sprinkling of Kiernan Box’s piano, giving it an uncomfortable beauty. The musical reference points are many: A Dog Starved is one moment a George Harrison outtake, while various members argue XTC or Field Music as its main influence.

There’s a typical density of ideas and musical styles. Things you’ve not noticed before will suddenly centre it after a score of listens. Favourites will change, moods – angry, melancholy, merely bemused – will jostle for prominence. Yep, it’s an Augie March album – nothing more, nothing less. Welcome back.