HUGO RACE - We Never Had Control

I have to be honest, I haven't followed Hugo Race since the days of "Last Frontier", the album credited to him and the True Spirits. So I have no idea what's come since. Given the sonic territory this former associate of Nick Cave tends to inhabit, I could more or less guess what "We Never Had Control" would sound like, and I wasn't too far off.

Which is to say: what can you really expect, after so many years on the scene, from this Australian with the big, powerful voice who's lived in the shadow of the “King Inkiostro” since the late Eighties? Exactly that – the usual shadowy singer-songwriter fare, steeped in doomed-romantic iconography.

And that raises a second question: does Hugo Race's music still make sense after the string of albums he's already given us? Now, without racking my brain too much over it – the thought of going back to track down the records I'd missed never crossed my mind – I instinctively slipped "We Never Had Control" into the player and, much to my surprise, I was pleasantly struck by it.

I mean, it's still the same old stuff, in a sense, and yet I was amazed to find writing this sharp and assured, not worn out at all, but also more understated and less epic than in the past. Maybe it's down to the presence of the Fatalists – the name hiding members and collaborators of Sacri Cuori, Willard Grant Conspiracy and Calexico – who on top of that give a few tracks (“Meaning Gone”, “No Stereotype”, “No Angel Fear To Thread”) a damn desert-dry spleen.

The rest is folk-noir singer-songwriting of the finest sort, and who knows, Micah P. Hinson's ears might just be burning (“Shining Light”). The award for best pop screenplay goes to “Snowblind”, while “Ghostwriter” recaptures the vehemence of the early Bad Seeds. Passed with flying colors.

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22/10/2012