Album Review: Super Wild Horses - Crosswords

In the PR blurb for Melbourne duo Super Wild Horses' second album Crosswords, it describes the band as having “carved a name for themselves locally and internationally as leaders among the lo-fi garage/DIY scene currently exploding out of Australia”. Such superlatives do not give Hayley McKee and Amy Franz enough credit, for such accolades are often lauded to the lesser-thans, the corporate blueprint that fits more into the mainstream whole. It's true that their debut Fifteen was heavily indebted to current musical trends, yet Crosswords presents a much more assured effort, with heart and ambitions bloodily pinned to their sleeves.

From the cryptic clues emblazoned on the liner notes to their sparse-yet-engaging take on Smokey Robinson's You've Really Got A Hold On Me, Franz and McKee aren't leaving anything to chance, preferring to touchstone everything that makes them tick. Opening track and single Alligator is classic reverb-drenched '60s garage rock, spiked with verve and urgency, further augmented by the broiling Memphis (written in the city one night during a heady 2010 US tour). Heavy Step is anything but, an almost spry pop tune more akin to local duo Texas Tea; the bottom of the melting-pot that is spaced-out Ono In A Space Bubble; the quiet(er) contemplations on Running With Wolves. There's an innate focus on stretching the boundaries while bolstering the band's strengths, which includes getting Bitch Prefect's Liam Kenny (whose laconic drawl on West Coast proves to be a masterstroke) and Twerps bassist Rick Milovanovic to flesh out the sound.

Crosswords isn't a puzzle in itself, then, rather than a piece in an ongoing jigsaw, seeing the full, exciting Super Wild Horses picture come into focus.