Album Review: Nathan Roche - Watch It Wharf

Sydney's man of many bands, Nathan Roche shirks the team and goes it alone for Watch It Wharf, ten tracks of cracked garage pop that highlight the artistry in tightly-coiled simplicity and staggering epiphanies. The nautical theme (apparently brought from an incident on Woolloomooloo's Finger Wharf, denied entry and cheap scotch whisky) is littered throughout the album, furthering the stumbling, grizzled shambolism, yet Roche never lets things implode, delivering odes of drunken charm, chagrin and regret all with the same twinkle in the eye. Off-kilter and strangely debonair, Roche is a revelation.