Waiting for Guinness -Friend or Foe

Mon 12th Mar, 2007 in Music Reviews

From humble busking beginnings in Sydney, with five eccentric songwriters, more than a splash of energy and an mish mash of musical styles, Waiting for Guinness deliver by the truckload on Friend or Foe, their most impressive and accomplished release to date.  Punters, bring your dancing shoes.

The opening bars of the ironically titled Cadaver Swing open up proceedings to a damn good time with funky horns, a burning bass line and smart drums. Unlike more traditional swing, this tune has a grimier feel and the vocals are sleazier than Ralph Fiennes on an aeroplane.  Nonetheless, the end result is no different as this energetic romp well and truly gets the feet itchy.  Before the grubbiness of Cadaver Swing can be washed off, Bella Guera has taken full control. Driven by fast paced and distinctively South American guitar stylings, this track combines some of the best components of music: an amazingly catchy and sing-a-long chorus, a sexy accent delivering vocals and the cowbell.

Falling Down is a change in pace; with its opening trumpet monologue setting the scene of the final scenes of a classic Western, where the smoke clears after a gun battle and the figure of our heroic saviour emerges.  This imagery is somewhat appropriate as the song is about an office worker, struggling with crumpled suits, unreasonable bosses, computer screens, ugly ties and a sterile environment.  “Some day I’ll find a way / open my cage and show me the way / but now I’m falling down / I’m falling down but I’ll get up again” is the message with the despondent mood cleverly captured by the music while still retaining an element of optimistic escape lingering in the background.  This theme is continued on Magic, a song about being lost in an artificial world, “money changes everything” we are told, and not being aware of the simple things in life like the breeze through the trees or the call of a bird.  Again, there is hope underneath the surface because just like money, “magic change everything” and can help you rediscover your life.

There is an interesting instrumental in the form of Wedding March, with elements of flamenco, calypso, Eastern Europe and even a touch of American hillbilly influence on display.  It’s no wonder that Waiting for Guinness has previously been described as serving up an idiosyncratic blend of tortured jazz, gypsy blues and Balkans boogie.  However, underlying this exterior is a much more serious story.  The song is dedicated to a woman named Eloise O’Hara, who was deported from Australia on an immigration technicality in “spectacular fashion” and after being “jilted at the airport by her less-than-courageous lover”. 

“Brazilian” signals an interesting middle part of the album.  For a few songs, Waiting for Guinness comes across sounding like the resident circus band, in a good way.  I can imagine clowns and other performers performing their tricks (or as Gob from Arrested Development would say, their “illusions”) to this music.  It is a combination of uniqueness, fun and humour that is inoffensive. Bubble is much the same, but can hardly be called inoffensive.  With a political message about foreign policy in relation to the Middle East, when the lyrics are heard in combination with the circus themed horns, the song gets a bit creepy, and my nightmares about clowns (of the evil variety) that came from watching Stephen King’s It at a young age threatened to return.

However, it doesn’t all work, which is to be expected of such a hotwire of influences. Red Moon is a snoozer, Thank God for Maconochie borders on painful at times and I Don’t Love my Baby, while crafty in telling the story of a sad affair, doesn’t quite pull off the combination of sleazy sax and accordion.

Friend or Foe is an impressive album.  Produced and mixed by Bob Scott (Inga Liljstrom, Paul Kelly and Wicked Beat Sound System), it has been able to capture most of the energy from a band whose style is much more suited to the live arena.  As such, it gives me the chance to say (and I apologise in advance for this terrible word play): Waiting for Guinness has left me waiting for more.