:: Barb - Barb

Barb

What happens when five of the best young musicians in Australian and New Zealand get together to work on a side project? If you guessed something special you’d be right. But if I said those five were James Milne (Lawrence Arabia), Liam Finn, EJ Barnes, Connan Mockasin (Connan & The Mockasins) and Seaumus Ebbs (also of Connan & The Mockasins) you would probably be expecting something very special indeed. And while Barb’s self-titled debut album is good (not as great as I thought it would be) it does a least try to be something a little different. It is hard to pindown exactly what genre you should class Barb, I guess the best stab-in-the-dark would be alternative-pop, but the album itself offers up a range of sounds. Opening track, ‘Leo’ is psychedelic but catchy, while the drum driven ‘Alcoholic Darling’ could also find its way into the ‘catchy’ basket. ‘Not A Bird’ has an ethereal feel to it that makes it pretty special while a great melody by EJ Barnes makes ‘Please Don’t Interrupt’ a great track. The psychedelic feel returns on ‘Martin XII’ while ‘Time To Contemplate’ sees Barb take a much darker road. The virtually instrumental ‘Beatman’ sounds like a manic drummer is hitting the skins at a street party while ‘Counting Sheep’ is just a sweet piece of alternative-pop. EJ Barnes’ vocals again shine through on ‘2004’ and you are instantly reminded of the Katie Noonan led george. ‘Characterful’ is a nothing-piece of instrumental that seems just like a waste of space while ‘Nile’ contains some strange vocals but actually does work and is guaranteed to have you singing along. The vocals also sound a little off on ‘Looking Out Through Barb’s Eyes’ but it is a good attempt at a sweet song. Barb never really reaches the great heights I expected it to but I guess sometimes when you expect greatness you are really just setting yourself up for a fall. It is different and will take a few listens to get used to, but it is certainly a good buy if you like your music a little left-of-centre.