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in winter..
.. it's like drinking black coffee trying to stay warm and keeping the cold out. the rain falls, the wind blows. some of you even get to see snow.in autumn..
.. it's a backyard in the suburbs, and hundreds leaves covering the green grass.in summer..
.. it's a night-time thing. out on the balcony (porch) with some beers and your friends.in spring..
.. it's the hope for a brighter day.
Album Reviews
Stories You Wouldn't Believe
Bit of understated self-promotion in song from the artist sometimes
affectionately known as The Turtle:
“I belong in a coffee shop/ I belong in your heart/ I should be on
your stereo”. And so he damn well does.
But maybe it’s just his sheer unassumingness (erm, is that a word? - ah well, it is now...) which means he’s been under the radar certainly more than his quiet gifts deserve. Shinazzi puts together songs of the sort of simplicity that takes a lot of work. Often they are little confessional conversations. From soft raw reminisces to something like The Drifter’s romantic daydreams which we’ve probably all had about that girl on the bus, but have been too embarrassed to tell anyone else. But then he adds the its the small details to take it that one step further: musing on why some other guys could make something of that spare seat next to her, before just walking away with a Springsteen tune blasting through his iPod - actually, it’s more likely to be an old-school cassette Walkman.
Other memories are of the something real he once had. On the cold night double-date stroll through Wyoming - with him quick to point out its ‘not Wyoming, USA’ but the somewhat more accessible one up near Gosford - it’s not just the girl he misses, but the comfort of the friendship as well. Sometimes he even thinks he might be ‘getting too old for this shit’, or drinking that bit too much for his own good. But the by the final track he’s Trying Not To Think About It, and maybe ready to get his heart broke again - at the least he’ll get some more feeling songs out of it. Failing that, Fred the cat will be there when he gets home.
Ross Clelland
