It’s been three long years since we’ve heard from Sydney outfit Fallon Cush and two years since main singer/songwriter Steve Smith released a single on his own (‘Runnin Red Lights‘), and it is great to see the band back in the saddle with new single ‘Grain Of Salt’. Labelled as Americana, I prefer to see Fallon Cush’s style as antipodean – Australiana? The flavours of the Australia’s wide open skies and expansive horizons bleeding through every note.
Having said that, there is an element of Beck in his more reflective ‘Sea Change’ phase in ‘Grain of Salt’. Gentle guitars and an understated delivery rest on melody and atmosphere with Smith’s vocals raw and urgent and dripping with a melancholy tone. Steel guitars gently weep in the horizon, above crystalline acoustic guitars and a pattering percussion – subtle harmonies lift the chorus.
The track deals with personal struggles:
If I came straight out with it
Looked you in the eye
Said that I’m really struggling
To survive
Would you take it with a grain of salt
Or would you listen to me
This is alt.country indie rock at its most enigmatic and imperial:
‘Grain of Sand’ was recorded, mixed and mastered by Josh Schuberth at Fireswamp Studios in the Blue Mountains, NSW, and features Smith and Schuberth sharing the instrumentation.
