[Powderworks] Capricornia Review
Peter Horbury
phwruvic@vicnet.net.au
Wed, 20 Mar 2002 15:03:22 +1100
>From the Green Guide (media/TV etc) in the Melbourne Age the following
appeared on the 7/3 (yeah, yeah so I was away & had to read X,000
emails to be sure no-one had sent it). Abbrevs where appropriate for us.
Review by Shaun Carney.
Under 'Pop' (mind you alternatives are 'Stage', 'Opera', 'Orchestral
etc') 4 stars.
In one of the great career-saving decisions in Australian rock, MO have
swerved away from the confused , hyperbolic excess of the near
disastrous RT in the direction of stripped-back , straight up, rock-pop.
On this, the quintet's 14th studio album in 25 years, less is always
more. This is two guitars, drums, bass & vocals and not a lot extra - no
overblown arrangements or studio fiddling. And the sensibility of
Capricornia deft, friendly, intimate - seems light years from just about
everything this veteran band has done. If the title song is taken as the
piece designed to represent this album, then we're looking at a very
different MO for the new century: it's a gorgeous piece of pop adorned
by sweet harmonies and a crisp 12-string guitar. Even the hard rock
outings such as the prod at Australian complacency, Too MS are leavened
by a lightness of touch that suggests these fortysomethings still have a
few more things to say and new ways to say them. Not everything works ,
but Capricornia is back-to-basics project that distils a great band to
its tuneful, heartfelt essence - and just in time.
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I can't help but presume that he's mistaken RT for RN myself based on
this.