If you’ve been seriously missing Augie March, or longing for Art Of Fighting to break their sabbatical, then I, A Man is the natural Melbourne guitar rock successor you need to be investigating.
If you know the four-piece’s backstory (two solid EPs; years’ worth of increasingly impressive gigs) then you’re probably already excited at the prospect of what I, A Man can do with the canvas that a full-length album offers.
If you don’t – well, that only makes Gravity Wins Again an even more impressive introduction.
Though each of the record’s 10 beautifully paced tracks is built upon familiar components – ambient-laced rock where textural guitars are layered over a swelling, hypnotic rhythm section – I, A Man’s edge (aside from the understated yet absorbing frontman-ship of Daniel Moss) is how the band daubs their aural flourishes with colours from across a vast sonic spectrum.
There’s brushes of shoegaze and krautrock (‘Fossils’, ‘Big Ideas’), starry-eyed ambiance (‘Monochrome’, ‘Lucky’), and experimentally spirited vistas (‘Minivan’, ‘Cold Feet Warmed’); all decorated with discreet yet deceptively catchy hooks – so don’t be alarmed when the tactful melodies of ‘In Time’ and ‘Less Travelled’ creep their way into your subconscious.
I, A Man’s cosmopolitan approach finds them settle into the overlap where the best parts of indie-minded American and Australian guitar rock bands meet.
A proverbial musical embassy where ambassadors like Yo La Tengo, Wilco, and Low barter ideas with Underground Lovers and The Go-Betweens. A unique alchemy honed thanks to I, A Man’s history of re-interpreting hallowed cult material by Neutral Milk Hotel, The Triffids, and Television.
You’ll have a jolly time playing ‘spot the band’ during the album’s 40-ish minutes, certainly, but that undersells the way this quartet have siphoned their many muses into their own distinctive (and distinctively Australian) sound.
Their slow-burn style may scare off some listeners before its charms can really sink in, but like all good sleeper hits, the more time spent with Gravity Wins Again, the clearer its accomplishments become.
It might be a bit early in the year to champion I, A Man among 2014’s best local releases, but on the strength of their compelling first full-length, it’s damn tempting.
Listen to ‘Less Travelled’ from Gravity Wins Again here:
