Monday, March 31, 2008

Album Review - Clinkerfield

Clinkerfield – A Head Full of Rain and a Heart Full of Puddles
[Green/Media; 15/03/2008]


Having been around the traps for quite some time now, appearing on various compilations and releasing demos, Melbourne’s Clinkerfield have finally unleashed their debut album. The shrewdly titled A Head Full of Rain and a Heart Full of Puddles.

Lyrically, Clinkerfield seem to capture what is was like to live ‘back in the day’; something another Australian band has taken upon in modern times. Clinkerfield also don’t do themselves a lot justice in the sound stakes, either, rubbing too close to the shoulders of their modern day contemporaries, The Drones (the same band in question initially). Nothing backs this statement up more than through ‘Bonnie Come and Save My Soul’. The influence of Tom Waites (evident during ‘Bonnie’s Little Finger’) also creeps into play, which is a slight welcoming, as segregation from the former becomes established.

Despite the close proximity of sound templates, ‘Someday We’ll Get Married’ has a nice rhythm with a sliding guitar effect that shies away from their influences, while ‘Stormy Heather’ is close to the album’s pinnacle, without sounding like a Drones B-side.

AHFORAAHFOP maybe an album to get pissed around the campfire too, whilst spinning a yarn and sporting a flannelette shirt, but to be honest it sounds so much better when The Drones delivered it with harsh cacophony, not to mention sounding a little more bona-fide.

By Simon K

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