Customer Reviews

Ways & Means

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Paul Kelly's previous album, "... nothing but a dream", was a sad album, melancholy and bittersweet. It talks about lost love and dying friends. "Ways and Means" is nearly a polar opposite of that album: bright, uplifting, cheery.

On "Ways and Means", Paul Kelly tackles the ubiquituous love song. He noted that writing a happy love song is much more difficult than writing a sad one. But can Australia's best singer-songwriter inject something new into a track that is already well-worn? The answer is a resounding yes. I haven't been able to take this album out of my CD player in more than a month, and I can't imagine that will change anytime soon.

The first single from the album, "Won't You Come Around?", is a raucous entreaty to a lover to come visit just a little earlier than originally planned. "To Be Good Takes a Long Time" is a rollicking song, reminding us that it's a lot easier to be bad than it is to be good. The saddest song on the album is "You Broke a Beautiful Thing", a not-entirely-surprised missive to someone who ruined a good relationship.

If you're familiar with Paul Kelly, this album gives you everything that you want in one of his albums. If you are new to Paul Kelly, this album is an excellent introduction. This album showcases his lyrical genius and ear for a catchy (but never simple) melody. If you're not in the mood for such happy songs, then his previous album, "... nothing but a dream", is just as strong.

For collectors who try to buy albums in their original country of release: do not buy the original Australian release. That album contains EMI's copy protection scheme that makes the album unplayable on many CD and DVD players. A friend sent me the Australian version. It won't play on three of my CD players, and routinely crashes my Windows 2000 computer.

The samples available for this album are a good taster of the beautiful guitar work and lyrical content by a unique Australian musician.

Anyone who knows life in country towns will instantly recognise the mood set by the opening track "Gunnamatta" - at once laconic and sparse with deep undercurrents of violence waiting to erupt from the boredom. This piece perfectly caputures life in country towns where racial tension, boredom, substance and physical abuse create a potent mix. Here the band nails it perfectly.

What is so magical about this album compared to Kelly's other works is the band he has managed to pull together. The guitar work by Dan Luscombe, Dan Kelly and Graham Lee creates shifting moods, broad cinematic soundscapes and simple workmanlike progressions when required.

Often in pop music one finds that lyrics and music have little connection with each other. I'd go so far as to say that this is a fundamental problem with most pop music.

Here however, Kelly and his band bring together the two components and the result is more than the sum of its parts. In "Little Bit 'O Sugar" for example, the song is built around a warm, broad slide guitar, slightly unhinged in its chord progressions and inconclusive. Here, Kelly uses simple repetition of lyrics around the idea of wanting some "sugar" but the musicians take centre stage to build the piece into a blistering, slow burning torch song. That Kelly gives the band a purely instrumental track as the opening track is testament to the importance they play as the tracks unfold.

On songs where the lyrics take prominence such as "Beautiful Feeling", the guitar work remains simple and sparse, but never derivative. Lyrically, Kelly is exploring many of typical modern contradictions of love and desire. In "My way is to You" he sings:

...
Many times I've stumbled
Many times I've fallen down
But always I had
The dream of your dear ground
My way is, my way is to you.
...

The love in these songs is gravitational, elliptical and earthly foundation. What takes them even further is the aural canvas created by the musicians accompanying Kelly's vocals.

Here then is an album of slow burning love and lust songs for adults. Not just a great Australian album, but a great album, period.

Where do I start? Paul is exceptionally talented and deserves a much larger audience for his inspiring tales of love and lust. I'm doing my best to get his aura spread out as far and wide as this Universe will take it.....I can't remove his cds from my player, neither at home or in the car. He sees things through eyes that are intuitive and thoughtful and it is obvious his heart is full even when it is empty. The melodies and the sounds are just breathtaking. The songs attach themselves to you and stay in your head for days on end. Yes, sometimes he is like Springsteen; yes, sometimes he sounds like Dylan, but mostly he is himself which is rhythm and blues on vegimite...... These songs are gifts to bounce off the soul.....These two cds are slower and full of thought and ponder. He still has the knack of calling a spade a spade but with more knowledge and wisdom sprinkled around the corners. I have always been a lover of good storytelling. Harry Chapin had that wonderful fill of taking a moment and inventing a story about it.... Paul does this too with great abandon. There is happy in life; there is sad.. Paying attention to his lyrics and style will bring a spring to your step and have you begging for more..... Paul is seeing life through the eye of an eagle and the mind of a Guru. It is what it is, and it is fabulous. Thank you Paul.... God Speed.....

This is the first Paul Kelly album that I have ever heard. I had seen a few favorable (yet small) reviews in a couple different alt-country rags as well as in Rolling Stone, and decided to give this album a shot. I was absolutely floored the first time I listened at the combination of his heartfelt lyrics and the diverse, yet cohesive vibe of the song arrangements. At the heart of it all is Kelly's warm voice. From first listen, I saw a resemblence to the delivery of Richard Davies (who I'm guessing must be influenced by Kelly); my brother pointed out to me how he can sound like a more mature Damon Albarn (check out the "Great Escape-esque" bridge and chorus of "Beautiful Feeling"). What really keeps this album in rotation for me though is the restrained-yet-diverse guitar work. Elements of electric folk leads, swampy blues, acoustic strumming, surf, banjo, and country pedal steel are deployed perfectly. Capping it all off is highly complementary production from Tchad Blake that never buries the performances of the band.

I highly doubt that I will hear another album released in 2004 that will top this one. I look forward to exploring the back catalog of Kelly's long career.

Paul Kelly has proven again that he's a wonder. His songs are melodically wonderful and lyrically interesting. You can sing along. You can ponder. You can dance and hoot. He's only put out one so so album. This is a superb return to form. If you don't know his music, this album may convert you. He's in the league of Elvis Costello and Nick Cave (though with a different vibe).