The 1981 Listening Post - Australian Crawl - Scirocco

Australian Crawl - Scirocco 

#334

July 1981

Australian Crawl

Scirocco

Genre: Rock

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Things Don’t Seem

Trusting You

Errol

The follow up to their debut, I think I might have liked Australian Crawl if they got any traction here in the states. Their sound isn’t unique, it’s pretty straight forward rock. You know the kind. The stuff that took it’s cues from 1950s rock and then amped it up and Power Popped it. 

Some songs are just well crafted end of 70s rock, like “Unpublished Critics” and “Oh No Not You Again”. 

Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or break down barriers or be the voices of a generation. Sometimes you can just write good songs and make a good album.

This reminds me of what we would expect from, say, Gin Blossoms 15 years later. “Lakeside” is a neat little 70s era Springsteen number and “Trusting You” is a PP banger. 

I liked this record a lot more than their first and I didn’t;’t hate that one. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/5FCC3e09sFPqZrXfozCXhF?si=py0DDsBoSsu6uCxJfF1t0Q

The 1980 Listening Post - Australian Crawl -The Boys Light Up

Australian Crawl -The Boys Light Up

#154

April 1980

Australian Crawl

The Boys Light Up

Genre: Australian Rock

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:
Way I’ve Been

You know how we talk about that elusive but palpable component that makes Canadian rock shimmer and gleam, even when it’s not that great? There’s something similar Down Under. But it’s not shimmery and it doesn’t glisten but it all has some sort of similarity (alliteration, baby!!). A lot of it (that’s not Nick Cave) sounds like musicians that grew up listening to one kind of music and then, instead of trying to recreate it, just let it inform everything they do. 

So, you end up with Australian Crawl, a band that sounds like what Doug and the Slugs would have sounded like if they weren’t Canadian. Ha! See that? Didn’t know where I was going with it, huh?

Canada’s sheen gave us the great Doug Bennet and crew. Australia’s gave us this. It’s not bad, but it ain’t no Doug & the Slugs. More like Kevin and the Koalas. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-boys-light-up-remastered/1442866235