Jesse Younan -Streetlight Sunrise

Wed 5th Jul, 2006 in Music Reviews

It was going to take a lot for me not to enjoy Streetlight Sunrise. After all, I’d instantly fallen in love with Jesse Younan’s first record, the beautiful, all-acoustic Swimming In Stone, an album as moving as it was sadly under-appreciated. Here was a man who’d come seemingly from nowhere, writing and performing half-tragic, half-hopeful songs of devotion; devotion to sin, love, vice, a daughter, booze, and cigarettes. The album was, as I wrote last year, ‘a showcase of a man with impressive guitar chops, a fine ear for a chord change, and a lovely, tender voice.’ All of that is true, but I neglected to mention just how much sincerity and soul Younan injects into his music, a rarity in a time of ubiquitous detachment and irony. Younan always sings his songs like he means them, a fact that goes some way towards explaining the quality of his music.

Couple the sincerity and talent of Younan with a producer like Brendan Gallagher – the man behind Jimmy Little’s rich, beautiful covers record from 1999, Messenger, and the principle songwriter for Sydney group Karma County – and you’re invariably on to a good thing. That the combination works on Streetlight Sunrise isn’t surprising, but unfortunately the considerable quality of their collaboration is tempered a little by the brevity. Only the opening three tracks are Gallagher-produced studio cuts, and that’s a significant disappointment for listeners who’d be happier with eleven or twelve.

That the three tracks are typically superb helps, with opener Swing the best of the lot, a heart-breaking original enhanced by the organic acoustic embellishments of Gallagher, a man who understands the importance of restraint in production; there aren’t any string sections or Pro-Tools beats here, meaning Younan is helped by his production, not hindered. It’s not just the production that delivers – check out Younan’s lyrics:

‘All your mothers, all you fathers / Keep in mind your sons and your daughters / Who carry with them the sins you don’t mend,’ or ‘I’ll take the blame / The blood and the rain / Live by the needle and die in vain.’

The other two studio songs, Troubled Times and Black Market, are similarly impressive, all subtle melodies and sad words.

The other seven tracks are recordings of a Basement gig in late 2005. I was at that performance, and I remember being struck by how conflicted Younan appeared about playing his songs before a crowd; on the one hand he seemed to realise that people were enjoying his music, on the other he seemed a little shy and withdrawn, as if he was protective of his words and music (or, more likely, not a fan of sitting in front of one hundred punters waiting to be entertained). He performed much of his set with his eyes closed, his head down, and he certainly didn’t engage in the between-song banter often seen at a venue as intimate as The Basement. He didn’t seem to realise quite how good he really is, nor how much power he could potentially have over a crowd of people. But the hints of awkwardness didn’t really matter; when your songs are good enough, you can perform them half-drunk, in complete darkness, while hiding behind a piano, and still win a crowd over (just ask Chan Marshall).

The live stuff is good, but it’s not great. Live albums are, by virtue of their definition, less polished than studio albums. Generally speaking, they’re also less interesting, with the enthusiasm, warmth and spontaneity of a live setting notoriously difficult to capture. (How many truly great live albums are there? I could count them on both hands. And how many amazing artists have released really uninspiring live albums? Yeah, a lot).

That the three opening tracks whet your appetite for some Younan-Gallagher studio gold makes the Basement gig even less exciting. That’s not to say it’s not a fine listen – it certainly is – but a two-thirds live album is not the best thing Jesse Younan can offer. Streetlight Sunrise is a good album that occasionally reaches some incredible heights, but it’s hard not to be a little frustrated that Jesse and Brendan didn’t book some more studio time. But there’s still time for that, and Streetlight Sunrise will do nicely in the interim.