Album Review: Xavier Rudd & The United Nations - Nanna

There are some stylistic hints to be taken from Xavier Rudd choosing to have his eighth record mixed in Jamaica by Errol Brown, known for his work with Bob Marley, Alton Ellis and a long list of other luminaries – Nanna is more reggae than any record we’ve heard from the Australian master of roots experimentation, though, true to form, it’s no one-dimensional affair.

Boasting a supergroup of musicians from around the world, Nanna may be bereft of self-sufficient acoustic pop/folk gems like Follow The Sun or Messages, though strip the joyful Rusty Hammer of its flute riff, brass flourishes and didge breakdown and the bones of Rudd’s instinctive feel for a tidy pop progression are revealed. Flag is strong – robust, in fact, in message and in structure, particularly given Georgia Corowa and Alicia Mellor’s classy harmonies that elsewhere, on the sun-drenched While I’m Gone, offer a warm and deeply feminine anchor. Lead single, Come People is typical of Rudd’s lyrical sense of spirit, land and community – as is Nanna on the whole – and it offers some surprising instrumentation in the form of classic piano tones that one would not normally associate with reggae styling; the entire record goes a long way to challenging preconceptions of the instrumentation and tropes of the genre. 

Rudd’s percussive, bluesy roots are missed for a moment, though Nanna is best experienced with an open mind, and heart. It’s a rich musical landscape within which to mull, explore and immerse.