Album Review: Shining Bird - Black Opal

The default descriptor for Shining Bird's music tends to be 'sweeping'.

Big, unmistakably Australian vistas of meandering watercourses and surf-lashed coasts, rather than the endless red deserts of many others. When it works, they're terrific: Rivermouth's guitar washes carry Dane Taylor's basso profundo tones, Morning Light's drenched colours. But then it can get just a bit too souvenir tea towel - bird noises, a blurt of Charlie McMahon didj. Or Helluva Lot's postcard words. It can then turn oddly retro - Love Shadow landing somewhere between Roxy Music and later Human League. There's utter sincerity to what Shining Bird do, but that's what might make them seem a little heavy-handed at times.