Aussie songstress Clare Bowditch is about to release the follow-up to her stunning 2007 LP, The Moon Looked On. The new album sees Bowditch at her self-reflective best and is littered with the beautiful melodies that have cemented her as one of this country’s most unique musical talents.

Modern Day Addiction weaves through tales of death, love, luck and femininity all whist retaining Bowditch’s wry humour and quirky approach to song writing.

To get an understanding of what music makes Clare tick, she sat down with FasterLouder and shared her ten favourite Australian albums of the last decade, and quite modestly left off one of her own.

ART OF FIGHTING – WIRES
So, ah, yes, how can I discuss this album without seeming somewhat biased, considering I did actually marry the drummer. First, I’ll mention that I didn’t marry him, or even begin marrying him, until well after this album was done. Now that I’m neutral again, I’ll just say that the combination of Ollie and Miles Browne, Peggy Frew and Marty Brown and what they did here on this recording will forever stand in my mind as one of the finest set of songs ever laid down by any Australian musician. It’s one of those sweetheart albums: when you see it in someone else’s collection and you point it out, they always go soft in the eyes and say “Oh man, what a great album. Unbelievable”. I should stop crapping on as though this is a small club because, actually, it as a pretty popular album at the time and won an ARIA and shit.

HOLLY THROSBY – ON NIGHT
Around the time I released Autumn Bone, this other girl called Holly Throsby released On Night. This was fortuitous, because it means I’ve gotten to travel alongside her on this musical journey and draw a great deal of inspiration and goodness from her songs. This album was just so deep and elegant and cheeky and true. I loved that you could hear what country she was from. The cover was mysterious and beautiful and made your heart ache a little: good combination of sexiness and possible regret, right there. I love how it was recorded, and I love what Tony and her made together, and how you can hear it’s recorded in an old house with thin glass windows. Treasure, I call it. She is. These songs are.

KID SAM – KID SAM
So, this album was one of the highlights of my ‘Australian Music Listening Experience’ last year, meaning, this album gave me a real thrill. Again, it’s the rawness and the realness and cracked bits and the experiment of it that delights me. There’s also something a little bit sexy about its simplicity, about the fact that there’s only a couple of guys playing on this, and they’re making something that sounds new and like it is “of itself”. That’s always exciting.

EVA POPOV – HELLO SATELLITES
My latest most favourite album, written by Eva Popov. If this album as an indication of the quality of music Melbourne musicians are currently making in their backrooms and bedrooms (and I think it might be…), then we’re in for a new Golden Age. This album utterly moved me, and shook me around a little bit, like a really massive set of waves. Strong and gentle. Interesting too. I want you to go and listen to it and tell me if you feel the same way.

JOSH PYKE – FEEDING THE WOLVES
When Albert Einstein said “the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science”, I reckon he was on to something. This album (actually, mini-album, but whatever) came with us overseas in April 2006, my travelling companion on my first ever European tour. It talked about doubt and trust and things that matter to me. Lines like “I’m gonna need some proof. I’m gonna need some proof” and clever songs like House in the Middle of the Hill and Private Eduction. One of my strongest memories from early 2006 is sitting in the tour-van driving through the outskirts of France just marvelling at how Josh had managed to make something so odd and beautiful. It had me by the achillis. Very much crystallised a very special moment in time for me. Still when I listen to it, I’m curious as to how it came to be.

HOT LITTLE HANDS – DYNAMITE IN BLACK AND WHITE
Tim Harvey leads Hot Little Hands and he’s in my band. He could just have easily been in David Bowie’s band, or in Roxy Music, ‘cept he’s too young ‘n shit. Back to the album: again, this is one of those delightful listening experiences where you’re friends with someone, for say fifteen years or so, and then you realise they’re actually a great songwriter, and you go “YIPPEEEE! Well, that’s a relief!” just like that. Musically and lyrically, there’s a real energy and drive to it, and again an inventiveness. Yes, I’d say it’s thoroughly pumping, and it acts as a deserving introduction to a gang of kids who, in one form or another, will be making interesting music for the rest of their natural born lives. Best thing since toast, this album.

SIA – HEALING IS DIFFICULT
I think this was a random purchase back in 2003 from my local record store, Polyester Records, in Brunswick St Fitzroy. I remember I liked the cover and the title was interesting, so I had a little “in store listen” and was rather impressed to hear Prokofiev’s _Dance of the Knight_s (that was the one, wasn’t it?) Also the odd, clipped lyrics and the way Sia played around with her voice struck me as kind of childish and mature at the same time, and I liked it. It felt unusual for 2003, when most of the local music I was listening to was far more reserved in tone and expression. When I listen back now, I hear more “Anita Baker” than I did back in 2003. Irrespective, she’s amazing, this was a delightful album that I listened to a lot at the time, and Adelaide should be holding it’s head high.

THE DRONES – WAIT LONG BY THE RIVER AND THE BODIES OF YOUR ENEMIES WILL FLOAT BY
Ah, I’ll make this brief. What of Shark Fin Blues? One of the best songs ever written. Drones? One of the best bands even invented. Just quality.

MACHINE TRANSLATIONS – HAPPY
There’s really not a track on this album I don’t love, from Acres through Misunderstood past She Wears a Mast to Be My Pillow. Machine Translations, aka J Waker, just do everything differently, and it’s the kind of different I live for. Who else manages to combine backwards loops and erhu in this way? Alchemy, that’s what it is. Beyond that, I really struggle to describe it. This and Spanish Holiday are desert-island albums for me.

KIRSTY STEGWAZI – JAILBIRDS
“Where did that year go? Is it stuck between the bed and the wall. Caught four seasons in a jar, and placed them next to my bed” is one of my favourite melodies. And I think those are the words. Even if they’re not, I sing them to myself at least a couple of times a week. Kirsty is an exquisitely sensitive song-writer, with a really unique melodic sensibility and I know her myspace says she’s retired for a little bit which I totally get, but by geebers I’m looking forward to more of her songs.

Clare Bowditch’s new album Modern Day Addiction is out today through Island Records.*

Photo by Daniel Boud for the FL Splendour Studio.