The Goon Sax – Mirror II – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Australian band The Goon Sax return with their third album.  It’s an album feels that feel tighter and more concise than its predecessor.

The first three tracks are poppier than anything previously heard from them.  In The Stone is smart, intelligent guitar pop, featuring prominent handclaps and a nice duet with Louis Forster (son of former Go-Between Robert) and Riley Jones.  Psychic is a big slab of 80s electro-pop, very Human League with Forster’s droney vocals evoking Phil Oakey.  The electro feel continues with Tag, which has a little bit of shambling indie thrown in, Jones’ vocal is charmingly twee.

From here on much of the material is more subdued and if anything this works better  -think the quieter end of Ultimate Painting.  The more stripped back Temples with James Harrison on vocals, opens a little like The Velvet Underground’s New Age, evolving into a pleasant shuffle.  You could nearly hear Forster’s father singing The Chance, a track that contains some blistering guitar work.  Bathwater features more great guitar work along with thrilling changes in tempo and Forster warbling in German in an Aussie accent at the end!  They even throw in some saxophone, and even this doesn’t ruin the song.

Later, the glorious Desire opens on a load of keyboards and growling guitars with a fine vocal from Riley Jones, aided by Forster, while jangly guitar fans will love Til Dawn.  The album is a fine example of what has now become a rare beast, old-fashioned guitar pop.  It feels like a minor classic of an album that doesn’t belong to any era.

In The Stone