Album Review: Paul Mac -- Holiday From Me

The Mac once commanded weather changes in any Aussie club with a mere flick of his wrist and for an enviable catalogue of quality which has included The Lab, Itch-E & Scratch-E and The Dissociatives (with Daniel Johns), we thank you, sir!

His first solo album in ten years so craves to be pulsating from the windows of the nation’s proudest queer venues. Alas, here, he’s simply nostalgically unprogressive.

Holiday From Me’s introduction unwisely irritates with the kind of Fatboy Slim loopery that overpopulated the late ‘90s. Once over that hurdle the early run feels a lot more comely. Inside Outerspace is the ravey bouncer that, with Benjamin Fraser claiming “I can feel you judging me with your energy”, slam dunks a Stonewall moment, as does hi-NRG single State Of War. Megan Washington’s typically kooky turn on Idiot is the point where the overfamiliarity starts to stagnate, and we’re only four songs in. Someone Else’s gradual mounting to power ballad ends up reducing Sydney soulsation Ngaiire back to being Australian Idol fodder, as if Mariah Carey’s template is being envied from afar without the chutzpah to unleash and go full diva. Thankfully, she shines on Exit Strategy and by channeling Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head in Mystery To Me but by this point, we can definitely say we’ve heard it all before.

Perhaps the years leading us in dance has left Paul Mac tired and emotional and he really does need a holiday from himself.