The Holy Soul - Get Old! , Vinyl LP WBYK
The Holy Soul - Get Old! , Vinyl LP WBYK
Factory Sealed (New)
The Holy Soul is Trent Marden, Jon Hunter, Kate Wilson and Sam Worrad, and they've got a new album called Get Old!
Get Old! was recorded at Lost Sound in Marrickville by David Akerman and Toby Baldwin. It was produced by Robyn Hitchcock (The Soft Boys) after he and the band had bonded over some rosé and Roxy Music LPs.
Robyn says:
"GET OLD! Sage advice from my pals from the Inner West of Sydney. The Holy Soul fall into the un-niche that is Art Rock: they are blissfully genre-free, though you could safely say they aren’t pop music.
It’s the sound of four musicians being themselves, reacting to life as they effervesce in the glass of life, right next to God’s dentures. Not always pretty, but invariably some kinda fun.
Aside from grooving with them in the Newtown/Marrickville area of Sydney, my point of intersection with them is the electric guitar: I love to hear two axes in synch, be it in The Stones, The V.U., The Magic Band or Television. The Soul have this in abundance, all scranch and no sludge: Trent setting the rhythmic course with Jon adding the superstructure, blossoming into waspish lead at times. Sam anchors the bass and Kate expresses the drums bigtime, yet somehow keeps the beat.
Trent’s primo dystopian lyrics ice this mental cake and the whole gang clatter off to meet you at your stereo, arms akimbo.
Officially I produced this record, but let’s just say I helped them unleash it: my main contribution was to double-track things occasionally, being my default suggestion to anyone I work with including me. Well done, folks - if this is the sound of aging, I’ll stick around. 👍⭐️👍 Love on y’all, RH"
It’s the first Holy Soul LP since 2015’s Fortean Times, and work on the album started in earnest after a short run of shows supporting Todd Rundgren.
The first single was 747. Writing in The Guardian, Nathan Jolly said: “This is the perfect introduction for the uninitiated: a Church-like jangle, menacing tremolo guitars that wash and bite, and a bass/drum combination that sounds like the instruments are tumbling down a staircase. Hitchcock’s production is clean and bright, and the best the band have sounded to date. Which, if you have delved into their discography, is certainly something.”
The rest of the album carries on in that vein, with more harmony and jangle than previously heard on Holy Soul records, while familiar elements remain: the songs are great, the drums are killer, the guitar solos are blazing and expressive, Bermuda is the inevitable glam song ("what Slade might do in a crisis") and the sleeve is by Biddy Maroney and Sonny Day at WBYK.
