Album Review: Jamie Hay - King Of The Sun

Jamie Hay has been a stalwart of the Australian punk scene for some years now, from time with the politically charged and double kick-delivered Conation, to his tenure in A Death In The Family, and the ongoing efforts of folk-punk ensemble Fear Like Us. Throughout all his musical endeavours, there has been a slightly haggard sense of catharsis in Hay's voice, an unmistakable song trait that is present and at the fore in solo mode. On King Of The Sun it offers stories traded to soften the blows, or reveal some kinship amongst the despair; kinship that suggests hope for resilience.

There was another project amongst all the punk bands, Tyre Swans – Hay alongside Away From Now's Darren Gibson and Blueline Medic's Donnie Dureau – where all three revealed their softer sides. There's a song on their album, Harry Baker, by Dureau, that says as much about the Australian experience of war as I Was Only 19. Hay's The Gift Of Years could be his Harry Baker; a tale of looking back on time at war that showcases so strongly that unmistakable voice of his, as, a cappella, moving three-part vocal arrangements unfold.

The backing band – a veritable who's who of Australian punk including members from bands like H-Block 101, The Scandal, Blueline Medic and Arrows – is employed to great effect, as in the dramatic ebb and flow of the opening track's closing passage, or Newcastle and One More Lament, reprised from the Tyre Swans album and Hay's debut solo 7” Thieves respectively, each song given a boisterous new life. The latter provides a spine-tingling re-entry from a bittersweet instrumental in Interlude.