With the welcome regularity and relief of a southerly buster after a stinking hot Sydney day, the esteemed The Nature Strip are back with another album packed full of pop goodness, delivered with their usual wry sense of humour and an uplifting lilt that’s as infectious as the crowd in a mosh pit these days.
Unbelievably this is only their fourth album (they feel like they’ve been part of the sonic furniture for a lot more than that) but it has taken a long seven years since their last release.
‘Domesticated Beast’ might well refer to their ability to wrestle the expansive wilds of the pop canon into 12 bite-sized delectable pieces of sonic joy.
‘Domesticated Beast’ is a cornucopia of sonic treasures – delivered with a vast and colourful pallet of sonic colours that show growth and diversity in the band’s sound.
Opening track ‘I Cannot Deny You’ hop skips and jumps into the world with a sprightly bounce,a liquid guitar sound and the signature harmonies and melodies this band does so well. It’s high wattage power pop. The lyrics, according to the band, conflate the trust issues negotiated in both mainstream politics and intimate relationships:
I cannot deny you now
You’re irresistible somehow
Too much for me to take
No place to escape
Wry, self-deprecating and inordinately entertaining fare that one comes to expect from this powerhouse of a band.
It comes with a dynamic video from frequent collaborator Luke Bozzetto:
In this vein, ‘Prime Time’ sparkles and shines with its Memphis horn sounds. In their own inimitable fashion, this is an unique observation on the life of a cicada and the nature of hibernation as an analogy for life after COVID. As Pete Marley, purveyor of the bottom end and one of the songwriters in the band says:
Many cicadas grow underground for a prime number of years to outwit their predators’ breeding cycles, then they come up and do their thing for a brief time. I equated that to venturing out into the world again after the events of the last few years – maybe it’s actually a note to self to not get stuck in the rut of being a bit of a hermit after spending way too much time indoors.
Fringed with thundering, stirring horns, this is what you come to expect from The Nature Strip: jangling guitars, a sort of fairground whirl, celestial melodies and a cheeky demeanour:
‘Surgery’ has an almost funky soul upbeat, again fringed by blaring horns and backing vocals, proof that The Nature Strip is expanding along the verge. I think of eighties soul pop (anyone think of The Pointer Sisters delivered as power pop?). Pete Marley’s typical muscular bass underpins the song and the fulsome melodies and sky-high choruses. The signature thread of humour remain in force while, in line with the times, there is a darker melancholic sheen to the lyrics and an edge in the sardonic call and response delivery:
I want to take this slowly
I want to take this in my stride
I want to take this slowly
But I take it much too seriously
It’s like surgery
‘Wavelength is pure stadium pop, pattering along with a high step and an XTC quirkiness, while ‘King Of Trees’ is more jingle jangle melancholy-laced sweetness with the usual humorous lyrics and it’s louche trombone solo and wandering bass: I’m made of bits you throw away.
‘Baby Beast’ Is driven by a wailing harmonica and a bluesy drive with its fuzzy guitars and beats, while ‘Monday (Roll the Dice Forever)’ has a bright sixties sparkle and a glam stomp with guitars that shimmer.
‘Sixth Sense’ is a vibrant hyperkinetic bundle of popping power chords, layered harmonies and the trademark sense of levity and joy. Well, not all joy, perhaps.
A rather more muscular guitar-driven piece of finery, ‘Sixth Sense’ is The Nature Strip at their most buoyant with its frenetic pace and bubbly melodies, and yet there is a darker tone to the lyrics with a sense of anxiety and uncertainty born of our times:
Something’s going on
I can’t put my finger on
Everything still looks the same
Your voice, your face, your skin
Your taste and touch convince
But there is something out of frame
Something’s certainly going on in the fevered, creative minds of the band (see Marley’s recent solo musings in Marveline, which all display a darker lyrical content) but the sonic joy firmly remains intact.
‘Nerve Endings Fade’ has a softer reflective flow, pianos tinkling in the background, scything guitars with the yearning vocals. Lighters would flood the stadium with soft gentle light when this one comes on: epic and cinematic. ‘Signature Move’ is another track that showcases The Nature Strip’s broader pallette as a band: less of the power pop and more of the burning intensity pop, a slow burning fuse with an almost reggae lilt in the vocals. This is a statuesque and majestic track: a highlight.
‘The Big Chorus’ continues this more complex side to the band with its romantic yearnings and, fittingly, the scaling melodies.
Final track ‘Royal Cannon’ picks up its skirts and trots along at a bouncing pace with a rousing trumpet call and a glorious chorus.
As always, it is not easy to compare The Nature Strip with their peers: theirs is a unique style of wry, knowing pop: not too sweet, a with a dash of bravado to temper the bubbles and the froth. There are undeniable genetic links to Teenage Fanclub via Tom Petty and XTC, a little The Kinks, but all with an antipodean sheen.
On the recording are:
Jess Ciampa – Drums
John Encarnacao – Guitars, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Pete Marley – Vocals, Guitars, Tamborine
James Greening – Trombone
Brendan Smyly – Saxophone
Kendal Cuneo – Trumpet
