Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By by The Drones
 

... You know what to do.

I had confused this band with the punk/post-punk band The Drones, who turns out were from the UK, so I was kind of expecting a post-punk album of sorts because I'd heard a couple of songs from them before. But when I read up on the Australian Drones they kind of seemed cool as well.

The album is decent enough I guess. There's some really good bluesy guitar work on it that reminds me of Neil Young + Crazy Horse at times, and the production is top-notch as well with the guitars coming through loud and clear. The thing that kind of puts me off though are the vocals, the singer sounds like he was piss drunk in the studio at the time of recording his vocals or something. While they don't sound too bad at times there are other times where they just sound grating and really off-putting. The album kind of drags on a bit towards the last couple of songs as well.

Apart from that though this album will make a great soundtrack for driving across the Australian outback, drinking a bottle of whiskey behind the wheel, and a dead body in the back. I probably won't be revisiting this album to often but I'll give it a few more spins too see if it grows on me a bit more.

'Meh' sums up my thoughts on this album. It's perfectly listenable, but It just didn't grab me. All in all, if somebody put this on in the car I wouldn't object, but if I wanted to spend an evening in listening to bluesy garage rock, there are various other bands I'd choose ahead of these guys.

This has been a favourite of mine for a while. There's an anger through the album that I relate to. I'll admit the vocals are pretty rough at times but to me that's part of the charm and reminds me of my youth spent hanging out in dingy Melbourne pub venues. While someone who sings about drinking methylated spirits may have been piss drunk in the studio I suspect that it may be the thickness of the Australian accent that gives this impression. This itself is part of the appeal for me on some level as it makes a refreshing change from most of the Australian artists who take on an American accent whenever they get behind a mic. My favourite tracks are the more upbeat like Shark Fin Blues, Baby Squared and You Really Don't Care and while the album does tend to slow at the end the closing track does pick up a bit to leave you in a place a little less desolate. Overall I give it 4/5.

Shark Fin Blues is a very good song.