Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males
Drowning in the Fountain of Youth

“This is our new bassist, Lewis Boyes,” Dan Kelly told a packed Melbourne band room soon after the amicable departure of The Drones’ Gareth Liddiard from Alpha Male bass duties. “And what a lot of people don’t know about Lewis,” Kelly went on, “is that he is made of spiders.” “That’s right!” Boyes added, waving his hands above his head. “I’m made of spiders!” Nobody in the audience had any idea of what the hell the two were talking about, but it was still funny. In-jokes, no matter how obscure or exclusive, are just funny sometimes. And with song titles like ‘My Brains are on Fire! (Life Coach Baby),’ ‘Baby Sitters of the World Unite!’ and ‘The Lonely Coconut,’ Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males’ Drowning in the Fountain of Youth is practically glued together with in-jokes. Since 2004’s somewhat solemn The Tabloid Blues, the Alpha Males have flourished from a dutiful backing band for Kelly’s uniquely sensitive yet at times extroverted pop, to a four piece ensemble of equally flamboyant pranksters who clearly spend too much time together. But while close quarters certainly breeds impenetrable personal humour, it also does wonders for group dynamics. Consequently, Drowning in the Fountain of Youth is very much a group effort, and although Kelly wrote all the songs (except for ‘My Brains are on Fire,’ which is co-written with Boyes), they are not his alone. ‘I Will Release Myself Unto You’ and ‘Fire and Theft’ stand out as examples of a band entirely in tune with each other’s talents, and one very much capable of broadening Kelly’s ambitions for the experimental scope of pop music. In the end, musical dexterity outdoes monkey business, and Drowning in the Fountain of Youth is a deftly executed pop album, written with summer in mind and good humour in tow.

by Pat McGrath