Fish Records - The Hired Guns - Between Here and The Night

Full Review

We don’t often feature albums from groups (rather than solo artists), and it’s rare for us to carry discs from Australian acts, so this disc from ‘The Hired Guns’ a five piece band from Melbourne is a welcome diversion from the norm.

The band plough a unique alt-country furrow, although there are influences clearly visible throughout the disc (the most relevant ones being Neil Young, The Band & Steve Young), even with these reference points the album is fresh and has a distinctly Australian sound.

While many group albums fall down because of overly full and unnecessary complex mixes, it’s to the Hired Guns credit that this disc is a balanced combination of upbeat and restrained material, and even in it’s more strident moments the musical detail and subtlety is still there. The recording is excellent throughout, and there’s a discernable atmosphere and sense of space throughout the 12 songs; much of this must be attributed to the recording venue, an old disused 1930s knitting mill converted into a studio.

All the songs here are credited to individual band members, and they’re all represented on at least one song – this has created a diverse and fascinating range of songs. Although from the pen of different writers, it’s customary for an alt-country disc to be lyrically downbeat, the open road, leaving and break-ups are all recurrent themes throughout, but the strong melodies and underlying dark sense of comfort in the songs makes this an easy disc to listen to.

This is a strong disc that will appeal to all fans of any form of alt-country, the almost retro sound gives it a familiar feel, but further listening shows this to be a disc with a unique edge.