Some Notes On The New Wes Cougar Carr Album “The Way The World Looks”

Remember the other day when I went to visit Wes Carr and listen to his new album with him? Well, it’s time for us to talk about this glorious event. Have you braced yourself? I am going to do this thing in point form, because I have a short attention span and the idea of writing a long and well thought out review makes my heart and my head hurt. I know you don’t mind. You get me. That’s why our relationship is forever.&middot HEIGHT FACT! Wes Carr is slightly shorter than me. I am 168cm. If my calculations and quick trips to old YouTube footage of Australian Idol are correct, this means that Andrew G is officially around the 4′6″ mark.

&middot After I was ushered into the Sony Music boardroom in Melbourne to sit at a table with Wes and shoot the shit/listen to his record, I asked him “Are you happy with what you’ve made, Wes?” He replied enthusiastically that he was. I followed this up, full on Andrew Denton powerful penetrating journalism style, with a thoughtful “Really? No one from the record company is in the room, you can be honest – I won’t print it if you hate this album” (which is true, by the way, I wouldn’t have – this makes me a terrible reporter but a good trustworthy egg if you ever want to take me to a bar, knock down some beverages, and have an incredibly truthful and meaningful conversation someday) and Wes looked me in the eye and assured me that he was very proud of his round silver baby. Daily Telegraph folk may like to use this little nugget of information in an article titled “WES CARR DOESN’T HATE OWN ALBUM”.

&middot Wes is very nice. And his love of vests extends from his video clips into his real life couture, just so you know.

&middot The first song Wes played me off the album was the new single ‘Feels Like Woah’. My scribbled idiotic notes say:

* Classic Oz rock
* NRL theme song for 2009
* Thumping rhythm section
* Fist pumping
* Big sound
* Doesn’t seem rushed at all

Which I think is my way of saying that it appears to have decent production behind it, has a massive drum/bass sound (could this be tricky Song Music speakers designed to trick naive bloggers into thinking the music is better than it actually is? WHO KNOWS), and basically it is a brilliant slice of bogan rock in the vein of John Cougar Mellencamp/Jimmy Barnes.

&middot The next song Wes played me was “Any Other Way”. Wes explained that as a huge Ricky Gervais fan, he wanted to write a song with a real David Brent/Andy Millman vibe. You know how in Extras, Andy has that rival actor who is always coming up to him and bragging about getting speaking roles, and Andy’s pretending to be totally not phased about the whole thing and is like “Whatever, doesn’t even matter, I’m happy with this part, career is going brilliantly…”? That’s the spirit of this song, except it’s directed at an ex-girlfriend. Apparently a few years ago, Wes had just broken up with his woman and was living on his mate’s floor. When he ran into her and she’d moved onwards and upwards since they’d split, he had to pretend that things were going great guns and he was quite happy with his life – “Yeah, living on my mate’s floor. It’s fine, awesome, he’s got free Foxtel, I love it, I’m doing really well for myself”. Note to Foxtel: Wes is really rather into you, especially when you’re free. Possibly worth investigating a sponsorship deal?

&middot “Any Other Way” sounds like a fantastically quirky little pop song, very Beatles/Split Enz with chirpy piano, and if Wes hadn’t come out of the Australian Idol machine, who knows? It may have been played on Triple J. Maybe. Heh.

&middot Next up, “When We Were Kings”. Wes told me this was his attempt at writing a song for the soundtrack of Stand By Me. I have written down “Nostalgic reflection” in my notes, though who knows what the fuck that means. Did Wes say it? Did I think it? It was a confusing day. From memory, the song sounded nice enough.

&middot Then I heard “Love Is An Animal”. Doesn’t sound anything like a Pat Benatar song, disappointingly. But I have written down “acoustic/pretty” so that’s a good sign, no? Wes wrote this song at 15. I’ve also written down the words “music boardrooms” and I’m assuming that means it’s about his experiences as a teenager trying to crack the music business and having to sit through meeting after meeting with record executives, but perhaps I took a turn for the mentally challenged and accidentally scribbled down where I was sitting because I was beginning to forget where I was and why I was there. The former sounds more accurate though.

&middot After “Love Is An Animal”, I turned to Wes and said (after assuring him that coming from me, it was a compliment, not a derogatory comment) that his new album was making me think of the six weeks I spent in a caravan park by the beach with my mother in 1990 where we listened to the radio in our annex after coming back in from the surf, and all the epic Oz rock hits that were played to death during that long hot summer. Noiseworks, Southern Sons, INXS, Boom Crash Opera… Wes looked incredibly excited and said “That’s exactly what I WANTED it to sound like! I tried to make the record sound like the summer of 1988!” and we beamed at each other and realised we were cut from the same cloth. I was two years off, I grant you, but spiritually we were in the same songs-of-yesteryear-worshipping place.

&middot Next up was “East Coast” which Wes wrote in L.A back in 2006. He’d been working with some amazing producers and writers over there and having the time of his life, but he was about to return to Australia – and not to Sydney, where he wanted to be, but to Adelaide. Lyrics include “I left my heart on the east coast” and “build me a home on the east coast”, and I helpfully suggested to Wes that he try and license the track to Masterton Homes. He found that amusing, bless him. But seriously, Wes! You could make a mint! SELL THAT FUCKER.

&middot At this point in my notes, I’ve written down “V. masculine (better than Shannon Noll)” – clearly Wes and his manly musical ways have somehow turned me into some kind of idiotic Bridget Jones type. V. good! I think what I was trying to remind myself to tell you is that in this country, we don’t really have very many… how should I put this… well, blokey male singers. All the pop R&B boys might be cute, but they also warble like great big girlyboys, pleading for love in a note-extending frenzy that makes me feel punchy after a few listens. The closest person we’ve had to recreating the glory days of Aussie pop/rock (think Barnesy/Farnesy/Diesel/etc) of the late eighties/early nineties has been Shannon Noll, and frankly his music – yes, even the theme song to my beloved The Biggest Loser – hasn’t really done much for me. But Wes sings like a man – a talented worshipped by tweens man, but a man – and he writes genuinely good blokey pop/rock songs, and I think the genre’s return to the mainstream radio airwaves is well overdue. That said, I listen to my iPod most of the time, so perhaps my opinion RE: RADIO PLAYLISTS should be ignored.

&middot Finally, Wes plays me his power ballad “Light Years” about a couple growing apart. It’s slow, with piano, whispered vocals, and strings – eventually some stirring drums make an appearance, and the chorus builds up. Lyrics include “So long/wish I could hold on/you’re light years/you’re light years/you’re light years away/but you’re right here”. Later the very nice lady from Sony Music who comes in to tell us we’re out of time confesses that every time she hears that song, she cries. So one for the ladies then, Wes.

So. What can we conclude? Well, if you’re the type who couldn’t sleep due to excitement right before Radiohead’s In Rainbows was released online and you’re constantly rabbiting on about how much you hate commercial radio/mainstream bands/etc, there’s nothing on this record that is going to change your mind.

HOWEVER. If you like your grown up pop/rock to be finely crafted, well produced, and impeccably delivered, then you’ll be more than happy with what Wes Cougar Carr is serving up. It’s not Arcade Fire, it’s not The Drones – and it doesn’t have to be. It is simple straight up commercial rock, and most importantly, it’s been done well. Give me a deliciously tasty slice of pizza over a burnt porterhouse steak any day. You get what I mean.

As I said earlier, it’s nice to see a pop star bringing back Oz rock of yesteryear, and even better? It’s refreshing to hear an Australian Idol associated album that sounds as though the budget allocated to make it went over the $26 mark. Shannon Noll really should be quivering in his Blundstones, or at the very least, hiring Wes Carr and the rest of his songwriting team to work on his next release.

Or as I Twittered on Friday morning…

WES COUGAR CARR IS THE FUTURE OF OZ ROCK, DAVID CAMPBELL BEST CHECK HIS DNA COS I RECKON WES IS JIMMY BARNES’ REAL PRE-TIN LIDS SON!

(Only heard six songs though, if the rest turns out to be complete shit, don’t blame me LOL ETC)