Your Body Above Me

I first heard Black Lab's song Wash It Away on Triple J while driving to work, perhaps in early 1998. At first I thought Australian singer James Reyne had done something really interesting - the vocals were of a similar style to his. After hearing it a few times, I put "Wash It Away" into Google (or similar) and found that the band was called Black Lab. Some number of months later I was walking through a local CD store, scanning the bargain table. As I walked out the door I realised that one of the albums on the table was by a band called Black Lab. I went back, picked up a copy of Your Body Above Me, noticed the opening track was Wash It Away and bought the album for $5.

I've read reviews of this album on the 'net, and they tend to be polarised. Personally, I think the money I spent on this album is one of the best $5 investments I've ever made. The album features walls of guitars, layered like a really good mud cake - the guitars are delicious: ranging from dirty, grungy, wah-ridden noise to delicate chorusy and acoustic strumming! The lyrics and vocal style are solid and angsty. Most of the songs are up-beat, but a little laid back. In amongst the wall of sound there is space to breath. The album builds to a great peak, with the 2 heaviest songs near the end (All The Money In The World and Bring It On), perfectly interposed with 2 of the mellowest and beautiful songs on the album: Sleeps With Angels and the set-closer Gates Of The Country. These 2 heavy songs certainly aren't my favourites - they're a bit too punk-ish for my liking - but the album would be poorer without them. The mellower songs suck me right in...

Yet again, this is one of those "complete" albums where it is hard to pick a highlight. From the opening song Wash It Away through songs like X-Ray and Thin White Lie to Ten Million Years, the album just rocks along, building to the interesting peak described above. I guess my favourite song is Ten Million Years, although the ambient guitars in Gates Of The Country paint out the song beautifully... and the guitar solo just kills me. The first time I heard it, this solo just seemed to come from nowhere, loaded with so much dissonance that gradually resolves, followed by (what sounds like) a key change into a final chorus. The final chorus is filled with grinding guitars and fades into feedback and unintelligible CB-radio-like voices. Neat...

I'd like to see Black Lab live. It would be interesting to see if they could reproduce anything like the big sound on this album. I look forward to another album, but it doesn't seem to be appearing in a hurry.