Album Review: Eskimo Joe - Wastelands

18 September 2013 | 10:45 am | Daniel Cribb

With such a drastic evolution, it’ll be interesting to see where their next record will venture, and whether or not they’ll be able to sustain their progress.

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If you've been following Eskimo Joe since they burst onto the Australian music scene in 2001 with their debut album Girl you may find listening to their sixth album, Wastelands, a conflicting experience. Squinting at your speakers while scratching your head is a warranted response, as the band have reinvented themselves in a very interesting way.

With its intense synth, somewhat cheesy vocal melodies and upbeat, dance-like-it's-the-'80s drumming, it's not until the fourth or fifth listen that the overpowering electronic vibe of Wastelands really begin to make sense.

Encompassing a wide range of new instrumentation and songwriting techniques, this album is surprisingly refreshing for the band's sixth record; Disgrace and Sad Song are unlike anything they have released. Utilising their own studio during the writing and recording process has allowed them to take their time – a commodity that has hindered this record while allowing for obvious benefits. It seems they got carried away and have drifted too far from anything that really presents raw emotion. It's during songs such as Got What You Need that we're reminded it's the simple things that make Eskimo Joe great.

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A lot of people were up in arms when the band announced their sixth record would materialise through a Pozible crowd-funding campaign, but the results yielded from the exercise more than justify their decision. With such a drastic evolution, it'll be interesting to see where their next record will venture, and whether or not they'll be able to sustain their progress.