Conwae Burrell, aka Extra Foxx, is the kind of artist that Brisbane too often takes for granted. Producing off the radar tunes with a unique and honest personality that shines through despite the many various combinations of the band that he has assembled over the last ten years or so, Conwae's songs are immediate, yet offer consistent listening pleasures. The extremely limited run of the Townsville Tapes, which came out at the very beginning of his experiments with pop music in Brisbane still sounds amazingly fresh, and the songs (despite many having two chords and a couple of short lyrical phrasings) never get old. His legacy is growing with time; Bedroom Suck picked up his amazing self-recorded The Saddest a few years ago, and now UBF have released their second Extra Foxx record, following on from Pierre La Rat, which featured high-energy sloppy rock versions of some of his early classics.
The set kicks off with Obsessed, and it's clearly a return to Conwae's solo work. The guitar jangles slightly out of tune as he deadpans a sad tale of obsession littered with obscure lyrical references sticking out of nowhere.
The album alone would be worth it for this track, but Love Is God is full of these numbers. To Lift The Weight features some backing vocal washes to give the sing-along even more depth. It's not all downbeat and introspective; The Beatles Were Right is fun and bouncy and Mum And Dad has a sloppy almost tropical feel. But at the core of it all is Conwae's seemingly effortless grasp of great songwriting – a most excellent local release.
