The latest project from charismatic former Died Pretty front man Ron Peno, in collaboration with Silver Ray guitarist Cam Butler, is Ron S. Peno & the Superstitions. Future Universe is the groups highly accomplished and stunning debut album. This is an unexpected and welcome return for Peno to the spotlight. As front man of Died Pretty, he exhibited an incredibly raw sense of emotion and being in both his stage presence and especially his powerful voice with its incredible range. This is a voice that can go from a croon to a howl in the space of a heartbeat. Died Pretty tracks like “Sweetheart,” “State Of Graceful Mourning” and the band’s Doughboy Hollow album are some of the high points in the history of Australian music.
Opening with the beautiful slow burn of “Death Of Me,” Peno and his fantastic backing band proceed to display their wonderful musical abilities and skills to a highly polished degree. The way everything fits together with this band and these songs are an utter joy to listen to.
While he was in Died Pretty, Peno was known for an aural sense of darkness, not unlike that of one of his contemporaries, Nick Cave, that lurked behind the surface. Peno might be better dressed these days, but that attitude and spikiness on a vocal level had not diminished one bit. On the utterly stunning and moving “Fall From Above”, one of the absolute high points on ths album, we see both sides of Peno’s vocal style and abilities.
There are some wonderful and unexpected influences at play in regards to where the band is coming from. One can almost hear the shadows of artists such as Gene Pitney and Roy Orbison in the songs assembled on this compelling debut, However, the band never come off as derivative and obvious in the way they use their influences. Great tracks such as “Gameplan” and “It’s All In The Way” have their own wonderful sense of identity and being to them.
There is not a dud track on this album. It truly is an immensely enjoyable and compelling listen from start to finish. This is, without a doubt, one of the finest albums of 2011.
– Neil Evans.
