Album Review: Guy Pearce - The Nomad

Why are people so shocked or weary of actors exploring music when telling stories is their stock in trade?

It's surprising more don't do it to be honest. But then Guy Pearce, the former Geelong lad who idolised Kate Bush whilst paying his soap opera dues, always did have the music in him, which resulted in a pleasantly surprising 2014 debut record, Broken Bones.

Recently claiming to the ABC's Myf Warhurst that "Singing is just crying in tune", his difficult second album (named after the plane his father died on when he was a boy) is a baring of his heart, taking stock of the end of his eighteen-year marriage and rebuilding himself. With a voice that trills high in one moment, vibrates with theatrical flourishes in another and trembles in a ruptured growl the next, it's a deeply personal long player that truth be told, can be a bit hard to penetrate. On Leaving Home and the title track, you may well end up crying with him and on paper at least, he is lyrically absolutely on point. But while there is much here to sympathise with, few songs here truly sweep the listener away.