Album Review: Oh Mercy - When We Talk About Love

Alexander Gow goes from strength to strength, and on his new album the Oh Mercy frontman is well on his way to becoming one of the most respected young songwriters in Australia. His fourth album sees him changing direction once again, this time delivering a slice of pure pop perfection inspired by the lush and detailed music of the ‘60s. Melding the personal songwriting of his first two albums with the confidence and ambition he gained from his recent curveball, he’s made a record that is simultaneously introspective and elegant. 

“I wanted to make it really expansive and beautiful, creating a sound that would wash over the listener” Gow told The Music recently, citing The Triffids, The Church and Burt Bacharach as his touchstones in making this album. The opener, Without You, soars with strings from its first moments, enveloping the listener and lifting them higher, before dropping back into the spacious backing arrangements to make room for Gow’s melodic singing, which has grown in both its passion and its sincerity.

The album’s appeal stretches beyond aesthetics, with the songwriting on When We Talk About Love the result of a 15-month period of self-imposed isolation in America. The title is taken from one of American author Raymond Carver’s short stories. He once described himself as “inclined towards brevity and intensity,” and these are two values Gow seems to have an inherent understanding for in his work. The result is a distinctly Australian body of acoustic pop music that reaches for the decades rather than the years.