One of the things that keeps me in the game as an old woman in a young person’s industry is that I get to see generations of musicians growing up and dealing with their triumphs and angst through their music. It’s a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. But different, very, very different.
…what I love about artists like Bad Weather is how they can be so beautifully fresh and tie up what they have to say with a sonic bow that’s glistening with succulence and possibilities
So it is with Bad Weather’s latest single, ‘Lilac’, which is bedroom producer, Callum Robertson, discovering that peace comes from within. An age-old trope, of course, but what I love about artists like Robertson is how their music is so beautifully fresh tying up what they have to say with a sonic bow that’s glistening with succulence and possibilities.
Having been an admirer of Callum Robertson and Bad Weather for a good few years, I can say that ‘Lilac’ is is a bit of a shift away from the innovative electropop they’ve been crafting up to now. If I had to hang it on a peg, I’d say it’s more in the singer songwriter vein, which suits very nicely the lessons for living Robertson is tapping into. It’s got a pulsing quiet/loud aesthetic that pushes the song along but leaves plenty of room for introspection and heartbreak. And there’s a beautiful lead break that drops into well, the drop, before it blasts off for a few more laps around the universe and then finishes on a minor chord.
Ah, how I love the minor chord finish after all that upbeat optimism. It reminds us that we can only ever learn through experience.
Callum Robertson is an extraordinary songwriter who knows how to bring it on record and on stage. Bad Weather are building into a major force on the Australian music scene and, with ‘Lilac’ in their back pocket, have confirmed that the only way for them is up.
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