Album Review: Party Crashers’ self titled debut album is a glorious indie pop delight.

Party Crashers features singer songwriter Robert F. Cranny who has a long history in the industry as one of the main architects of Sarah Blasko’s debut album ‘The Overture And The Underscore’, and its follow-up ‘What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have’. Cranny co-wrote and co-produced both albums, the latter winning the ARIA award for Best Pop Release in 2007 and both achieving platinum status in Australia.

Cranny is also behind the record label Enchanted Recordings – a vehicle for critically acclaimed albums from the redsunband and Sienna Lee – and produced records by Leonardo’s Bride vocalist Abby Dobson, storied songwriter Ben Salter, and Melbourne indie rock band Gersey. Cranny’s songs have appeared in TV shows such as One Tree Hill and Six Feet Under.

Now, the band Party Crashers sees Cranny climbing on stage to produce his own work, developing from his previous alt country band Peachfield. Cranny describes his journey:

I was trying to live out this Don Walker fantasy where I would write the songs, other people would flesh them out and sing them and I’d be the anonymous dude up the back playing piano. After COVID subsided, we found ourselves with half a band and no vocalist. The task of building up another six-piece band was just too daunting. We tried to find a singer but I was already circling the revelation that that I should just sing the things myself.

The self titled debut album, out now, shimmers with a traipsing lilt and a wry expression. You can detect in the DNA a little of the Flying Nun/Dunedin sound, Springsteen, bands like The Las or The Coral from Liverpool and an overall antipodean blush that reflects the inner city blues and the angst of the inexorable march of time.

The music is driven by a sparkling piano in the engine room and is filled with statuesque anthems, no more evident than the opening track ‘Party Crasher’ which is a melodic thrill redolent of Stereophonics. ‘Hands on Me’ canters along with a delightful fey innocence and lyrics that are threaded with an incisive sense of humour:

I’m not working in the pop-up store
The days are longer than the till is short
I’m not losing any more sleep on their dreams
I’m gonna dream my own

There’s a touch of The Jam and even Billy Bragg in the lyricism and melody.

‘Stoked With Your Diagnosis’ positively sparkles with the piano driven roll and world weary vocals about the vicissitudes of life and growing old. The track explores the subjects of doctor shopping and secondarily, the pressure from parents to settle down. With lines such as Are you too old for Newtown? and We’re hoping that the new doctor might be ‘the one,’ Cranny captures middle aged obsessions, the minutiae of life, a place you never thought you would end up in with a certain self deprecating sense of humour and poignancy.

Tracks like ‘Stationbridge’ and ‘When The River Went Back Down’ have an effervescence that recalls the innocence of Madness with the gently melodies and vivid storytelling, while ‘Your Little Sister’ and ‘Speed Street’ have a deep poignancy.

The bass runs provide an ambulant foundation for the driving piano: witness the thrum of ‘Peach Rock’ which high steps its way through the soaring, euphoric choruses on a melodic bass spine. Final tracks ‘Snake Gully’ and ‘Sleepy Carriages’ have a folkloric shimmer, the latter with an indelible chorus.

This is a thoroughly satisfying album which has elements of folk and indie pop threaded with a poignancy and sense of humour, but above all with an ear for perfect pop delivered with intelligence and heart.

You can downolad and stream the album through the link above and find out more here. Cranny says of the creative push behind the album:

I grew up in the suburbs, moved to the country and ended up in the city. All of my songs are about trying to leave one place, trying to get to another place, going back to an old place, getting stuck in a place and – for the first time, maybe – realising it’s not so bad where you are.

Creativity certainly has no use by date and Party Crashers are the evidence.

‘Party Crashers’ is out now and available to download and stream through the link above and here. You can catch the band launching the album in Sydney on Friday, 2 May with a few other dates organised – details below.

I keep harping on about the wave of brilliant bands that, after successful (or not so successful) musical careers in the eighties and nineties, are reforming or forming new iterations that still have a spark of creativity and excitement. Party Crashers are another fine example. Party Crashers are:

Robert F Cranny – Vocals, Piano, Lead Guitar
Gillian Watts – Bass, Lead Organ
Laetitia Michel Shepherd – Guitar
Owen Penglis – Drums