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Memories & Dust

Josh Pyke
Memories & Dust

12 Track, LP (2007, Ivy League)
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Earnest young men with guitars never lack for competition, but with singles like ‘Private Education’, ‘Memories and Dust’ and ‘Middle of The Hill’, Sydneysider Josh Pyke has stolen a march on his contemporaries and carved out a comfortable niche for himself. His debut long-player doesn't change the format too much, though adds some pleasing touches of late Beach Boys lushness to his folk-pop songcraft. ‘Buttons’ and ‘Forever Song’ in particular suggest a previously undeveloped ability to craft catchy, autumnal pop songs in the Posies mould.

Pyke’s likeable down-to-earth sincerity is his strong suite as a live performer and likewise it’s the moments of honesty on Memories & Dust that resonate the strongest. “I know I become what’s weak in a man/And weak in a boy” he sings on opener ‘Lines On Palms’, while the penultimate song sees him concerned that everything he holds dear will, “Never become more than vibrations in the air”. But there’s also a resilient streak apparent in Pyke’s work that counters his natural sensitivity.

In such a crowded field, originality is rare and the sentiment behind ‘Someone Else’s Town’ (“It makes me sad to feel the need to live my life at such great speed”) is by now a familiar one. Also, tracks like ‘Sew My Name’ and ‘Covers Are Thrown’ settle for being merely pleasant, lacking the urgency, undercurrent of darkness and sting of personal revelation that made ‘Middle Of The Hill’ (included here) such a breakthrough hit.

by Daniel Herborn

Tracklisting
  1. Lines On Palms
  2. Memories & Dust
  3. Forever Song
  4. Mannequins
  5. Someone Else's Town
  6. Fed and Watered
  7. Sew My Name
  8. Covers Are Thrown
  9. Middle Of The Hill
  10. Buttons
  11. Vibrations In Air
  12. Monkey With A Drum
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