Album Review: New Estate - Recovery

Scrappy Melbourne DIY outfit New Estate have delivered a modestly commendable effort with their new LP Recovery. Like the sun reflecting off the dusty bonnet of an old yellow Torana, these roughly hewn songs radiate the warm nostalgic glow of early-'90s garage pop (ala You Am I) and have the same benign, muscular appeal. Scuzzy textures, woozy vocals and shoegaze tones are liberally deployed, giving the record a slightly stoned atmosphere. This also means it never rises above an amateur level of production.

The fact they spent quite a lot of time on it (two years from go to woe) suggests the level of effort or enthusiasm never really got into the red. Since there are so many little pockets of lovely noise littered around the album, it's certainly not a question of musicianship, just perhaps commitment and attention to detail. A take here, a re-dubbed vox track there, bit by bit they eventually knocked out an album. It sounded pretty good for a bluesy garage album on tape, so they left it at that. Where studio-backed outfits would persevere to get that extra depth, New Estate just nudge it over the line, content with letting the lo-fi ambience speak for itself.

It's strangely muted, and even the screaming solo on Stations – the record's longest jam – is coated with dust and residue from home recording sessions with a less-than-awesome mix. Despite its shortcomings as a sound recording, Recovery still generates enough positivity and warmth with some fairly solid songwriting to mitigate the disappointing lack of quality control.