It’s impossible to discuss Ian Rilen And The Love Addicts’ new album, Family From Cuba, without mindful avowal of the man, the legend and, the situation the album was pieced together in.
Family From Cuba is a great album on its own merits, but when the totality of circumstances are considered, it elevates to nothing short of amazing.
Ian Rilen passed away in 2006 in the months after the completion of the record. The album is written and recorded from the perspective of a man in grim acknowledgement of his own mortality.
Like Rilen himself, Family In Cuba is a larger than life, multi-faceted affair.
Don’t mistake this record for sentimental though.
Instead, it’s the document of a man who has faced his past and is staring squarely at the present through a lens smeared thick with every ounce of dirt, every battle and every hour of hard living.
The album kicks off with ‘Wishing Well’, a forceful, guttural number ably described by guitarist Kim Volkman as “like being hit with a sledgehammer 15 times over’”. It ends with ‘Song For Romeo’, a tender missive to Rilen’s young son, beautifully grounded by The Cruel Sea’s James Cruickshank on piano.
From first track to last, Family From Cuba is nothing short of blistering, grinding rock n’ roll, written and performed by a man who undeniably played a conspicuous part in forging the elements that now make up the Australian rock music landscape.
The fact that Family From Cuba was finished without Rilen is of little consequence. This record serves as a fitting final statement from one of Australian music’s most complex and intriguing characters.
