New Estate, Out of the Ground

review by dave heaton

With three different singers/songwriters, the Australian band New Estate often project different personalities while pulling together as a group. There are vocalists and songs with more of a louder ragged-punk thing going on, and ones where pop tunefulness is more in play. The end result is a balance. A lot of anger and recklessness is projected, but tight melodies too. Feeback lingers in the air, but there are group singalongs.

And anger can be playful, too. Both playful and incisive are “Headphones”, which asks of the ipod-wearing masses “what are you listening to?”, and the driving, totally addictive “I Wanna Have Control”, with its central thought, “I feel like Joey but I wanna feel like Johnny ‘cause I wanna have some control.” “Sum of Indifference” takes that idealized “summer of love” notion and turns it around for today, describing a society where everyone’s jaded.

Other songs ask questions about place/home, without easy answers. These songs jibe with the band name, like “Life in the Suburbs”, which begins with a nick of “When You Wish Upon a Star”, and “It Was Like That When I Got Here”. “Tow the Line”, the last song is titled, but they’re not towing any lines. That song starts out compact yet skuzzy and branches out as it proceeds, into solos and noise that seem to be exploring the boundaries of the physical spaces they can occupy and reach.

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