Broken Brights marks a slight departure from the folk sound Angus and his sister have been known for. The album, produced by Angus, shows that he can deftly shift between genres without compromising his signature sound. Title track Broken Brights shows a nostalgic, dreamy tribute to our youth — while the song Bird on the Buffalo is a more livelier composition, incorporating distorted guitar riffs, which also make an appearance in the notably rockier It Was Blue.

Speaking about recording without his sister, he says:

“Recording this album has been a very different experience for me. It was an opportunity to be a little more loose and have a bit more fun,”

“Recording with Julia is cool but we both have our hands on the wheel. This was an opportunity to grab the wheel and do some burn-outs”, says Stone.

Broken Brights will be released on CD, deluxe CD and digital formats, each including exclusive tracks, as well as on vinyl. The album will be released on Friday, 13th July.

Angus Stone ‘Broken Brights’ Tracklisting

1. River Love
2. Broken Brights
3. Bird On The Buffalo
4. Wooden Chair
5. The Blue Door
6. Apprentice Of The Rocket Man
7. Only A Woman
8. The Wolf And The Butler
9. Monsters
10. It Was Blue
11. Be What You Be
12. Clouds Above
13. End Of The World

The brother and sister have taken a well deserved break after the release of their ARIA winning album Down The Way, which took them across the world touring the platinum-selling album. Other half, Angus Stone, has just released his new single Broken Brights, which was welcomed by a storm of critical acclaim, alongside triple j’s tick of approval.

Prior to the release of her album, Julia has given fans a rare treat, allowing them to get a sneak preview of her album by uploading the single Let’s Forget All The Things That We Say, which also was warmly welcomed by fans and critics alike.

This one-off concert is the last in a series of seven intimate concerts showcasing the album.

Julia Stone – Intimate Album Preview Shows, World Dates

Fri 20th March De Duif, Amsterdam
Sat 21st March Motel Mozaique, Rotterdam
Mon 23rd March Roter Salon, Berlin
Tue 24th March Café De La Danse, Paris
Thu 26th March Studio Private, London
Fri 01st June The Cemetery, LA
Wed 13th June Cell Block Theatre (National Arts School Forbes), Sydney

From February 20, you can buy the four-track EP through Julia’s own label, Picture Show Records.

The National’s drummer, Bryan Devendorf, features on two of the tracks.

By the Horns is Julia’s second solo album: in October 2010 she released The Memory Machine.

Watch: Julia Stone – Let’s Forget all the Things The We Say

By the Horns Tracklisting

1.Let’s Forget All The Things That We Say
2. Tell Her A Story
3. Take Me Home
4. The Shit That They’re Feeding You

On first listen I found myself gravitating towards the hip hop tracks on this album. Maybe because it didn’t sound like some indie-folk-crossover-shoe-gazing-meandering-style-of-a-track-that-is-the-current-fashion-and-will-be-old-and-tired-in-twelve-months-time. To me, half the songs on this double CD fit into that category. It’s only when something different, that breaks the monotony comes on that I started to take notice. Bliss N Eso’s track Addicted is a great song. Drapht’s Rapunzel is catchy as all hell and the highlight for me was fucking Kayne West’s Runaway!

The Aussie charge are better than the the overseas contingent on this one. Boy & Bear are great covering the Crowded House classic Fall At Your Feet and of course Birds Of Tokyo. But there was a few tracks that did nothing more than convince me that kids today don’t know shit about music. I’m sorry by Duck Sauce’s Barbara Streisland is stupid and Art Vs Science Magic Fountain is an atrocity to music.

Congratulations have to go to Angus & Julia Stone for the number one spot on the poll, which means we get 2 versions of their song on this album. (The live version is better than the album version) This is not Triple J’s finest Hottest 100 compilation, but if you spent all of last year listening to these songs, they will have meaning and a place for you and then this album will be worth your coin. But for me, it’s hit and miss.

Local media are hoping that this festival will put them on the map as far as Music is concerned and lets hope thats the case!! There are only 4000 tickets for sale so if your from Shepparton you better get in fast!! Organisers have also confirmed that they’ll be donating 50% of the profits from the gig to Reconciliation Australia, a not for profit organisation that aims to bridge the gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians so its a win win for everyone.

3630 Festival will take place on Sunday March 13th

3630 Festival Line-Up
Angus & Julia Stone
Muscles
Clare Bowditch
Briggs
Ryan Meeking
The Verses
Chev Rise
8 Bit Love
Inedia
The Manners
Tet to Tet
Samson
Scattermusic Soundsystem
Oh Pacific
Luke Ellis
DJ Flagrant
Average Joes
Nine High
MC Pete
Simetrik/C-Oh Rex Mundi
Buckle Dustaz
Zetes
Franco
Vitz
BMAC
Bury the Truth
Darktown Stutter
Nervedamage
The Pirates
Jayne Lilford
Sam Ryan
The Polyesters
The Band King
The Beautiful Few
Chelsea Harrington
Pharmy Dhillon

Following their domination at the 2010 ARIA awards it’s hardly surprising to see them take out the top spot with over 1.5 million votes.

The Australian brother/sister duo also managed number 62 in the list with ‘Hold On’.

Other notable top 10 choices included Melbourne band Little Red with their single ‘Rock It’ and Ou Est Le Swimming Pool (who’s singer Charles Haddon commited suicide last year).

View the full Hottest 100 list here.

Julia’s voice still sounds like she’s baby talking though, perhaps even more so than before. Emiliana Torrini sings like this because that’s how she speaks – she’s Icelandic OK? – and Sarah Blasko even does it to some extent, but when you compare how Julia sounds on Chocolate & Cigarettes to how she sounds on Down The Way it’s clear that her style is somewhat affected. It’s not unpleasant but it feels a little unnecessary – her voice is attractive enough without needing to be dressed up in contrivances.

The lyrics at times are still a little bit pokey, but with a stronger, more Damien Rice sounding arrangement, they sound a little more powerful. Angus and Julia aren’t master storytellers, but they do make nice music, and ‘For You’ (in which they unexcitingly sing, mainly, “Here I go/I’ll tell you what you already know”) is still one my favourites from the album. When the second verse allows an electric guitar and a drum kit to add some oomph to the track, everything seems to gain a little more attitude or legitimacy.

That said, ‘Big Jet Plane’ still irks me with some trite lyrics like “I want to hold her/I want to kiss her” and “She smelled of daisies/She drives me crazy”. The chorus, which repeats “Gonna take you for a ride on a big jet plane” doesn’t really pave new ground either, and the song feels limp and empty of meaning. I suppose a song shouldn’t have to have meaning, and some times the emptiest of pop songs are still great, but the style of music that Angus & Julia Stone write in seems to imply that it is moving and heart-wrenching. The music itself tells a story of lost love and new romances, with wailing strings, bursting climaxes, delicate and charming male/female harmonies, but the lyrics often fall in to terrible cliché.

‘And the Boys’ starts of with a very ‘Private Lawns’ guitar line, but instead of a nice bassline, we get a melodramatic piano riff and more repetitive lyrics. Essentially there are all the elements for good music here, but the difference is that Angus & Julia Stone aren’t really taking any risks with their songs. Nothing is very surprising, or surprising enough. A banjo in ‘On the Road’ adds some new colour – a filmic element perhaps – and Angus’s voice suddenly takes on this Ryan Adams-y sound, which is certainly better than the totally flaccid Sensitive New Age Guy thing that he seems to usually gravitate towards, but after four minutes, the song doesn’t really ever do anything particularly cool – every chorus is the same, there is an extremely boring solo, and that’s it. ‘Walk it Off’ brings in a good strong orchestral sound and driving galloping fast drumbeat, but the treatment on the vocals is exactly the same as the rest of the album, where it really could have taken on some more epic reverb and not suffered. It doesn’t seem to build up to anything as great as the climbing strings suggest either.

All these songs are based on pretty similar chord progressions, instruments and structures. If you like what they are, it’s a gem. If you expect something a little more innovative or creative, you will find this boring. Either way it doesn’t hurt the ears at all and is tight, well produced and charming in its way. Not as saccharine as Chocolate & Cigarettes, but still pretty sickly-sweet.

Down The Way is available now. Find it on

Angus and Julia Stone will once again grace our stages when they hit the road next March on their national tour. Tickets are on sale now.

Tuesday 16th March
ACT – Uni Bar, Australian National University

Wednesday 17th March
NSW – Uni Bar, Wollongong University

Thursday 18th March
NSW – Bar on the Hill, University of Newcastle

Friday 19th March
QLD – Tanks Arts Centre

Saturday 20th March
QLD – The Tivoli

Sunday 21st March
QLD – Lake Kawana Community Centre

Wednesday 24th March
TAS – Hellenic Hall, Hobart

Thursday 25th March
VIC – Palace Theatre, Melbourne

Friday 26th March
NSW – Metro Theatre, Sydney

Saturday 27th March
NSW – Metro Theatre, Sydney

Sunday 28th March
WA – Fremantle Oval – West Coast Blues & Roots Festival

Wednesday 31st March
WA – Settlers Tavern, Margaret River

Thursday 1st April
WA – The Astor Theatre, Mount Lawley

Friday 2nd April
SA – Thebarton Theatre, Torrensville

For further ticketing information, head over to their myspace page. Angus and Julia Stone’s new album, Down The Way, is out in March.

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‘and the boys’ is a Julia song. Anyone familiar with this cute as a button, northern beaches brother and sister duo will know that Angus and Julia spread the songwriting, and thus lead vocal duties, between them. This could be a recipe for a stilted and jarring musical disaster, especially given that these two can often spend months apart from each other, writing completely separately and individually, in different spaces and places.

On their debut full-length, A Book Like This, there was no such jarring. I certainly noticed the differences between the Angus songs, and the Julia songs, but I think that’s their intention. And one of the things I found wonderful about the album, was that however they decided to compile the tracklisting, it never felt formulaic like, “oh OK, let’s go boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, boy, girl, girl” etc. Even though I got a definite sense of two strong and separate individuals, A Book Like This was whole and complete and utterly lovely.

I don’t know how the new album Down The Way is going to pan out, but I do know that I fell in love with ‘and the boys’ from the first note that hit my ears. It’s a bit of a heartbreaker, starting off slowly, with Julia’s woodland fairy-folk voice singing of love lost in melancholy breathiness.

As it builds though, and introduces the percussion and the vocal harmonies and Angus on trumpet, and as Julia sings about “gold, falling from the ceiling of this world, falling from the heartbeat of this girl”, and as all these lovely little colourful sprites start dancing barefoot in the beautiful music video that’s been made for this single, it’s clear that this is actually a beautiful and hopeful tune. It’s quite magical really, and I’m very much looking forward to exploring Down The Way in 2010, as well as catching them during their national album tour in March next year.

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Mini-mix this week has no cheap segue what-so-ever. In the wake of Canadian hip-hop, rap muso k-os’s brand new single ‘I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman’, I did a bit of sleuthing through the old music library to find see if I could find any other songs dedicated to famous peeps. As you would expect, there’s quite a few, here are my top three, just for a little bit of festive fun. x

I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman – k-os
I love a bit of a kooky story line in my music vids, almost as much as I like samples that remind me of the simple things in life, like the days when I had a crush on Seth Cohen.

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Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes
Kim Carnes is one fierce blondie in this clip, rocking the billowing smoke and backlighting and shadows on the wall like no one else. I don’t even know what Bette Davis Eyes are, but I want them!

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Starlett Johansson – The Teenagers
To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised that there aren’t more songs dedicated to Scarlett J. The best thing about this song is listening to the way these Frenchies pronounce ‘monogamy’.

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