Cold Chisel - No Plans (30/04/2012)
A lot has happened to Cold Chisel in the fourteen years since their last studio album.
Hard drinking lead singer Jimmy Barnes has gone sober, Don Walker gained a new band of followers with his work with Tex, Don and Charlie and long-time drummer Steve Prestwich sadly passed away in 2011.
After 2011’s sell-out Light The Nitro reunion tour, Chisel has decided to re-enter the studio and have produced an effort that can easily stand alongside their back catalogue.
Right from the opening bar of the lead track No Plans we can be assured that Chisel are back, and back to their best. The track is a great lyric of the current mood of the band, as well as a terrific vehicle for Barnes to show off the full extent of his vocal range. From those first few seconds you’re reminded that nobody can quite sing like him.
Personally I feel that the best track on the album is HQ454 Monroe, an exceedingly catchy rock n roll number about what the whole genre is really all about – girls and fast cars. This is classic rock n roll, catchy guitar, great vocals and real rock n roll themes – girls and cars! What holds the song is the greatly underappreciated Don Walker’s pounding piano. I dare you not to have your feet tapping at the end of the song. I also feel the band erred in not making this the lead single.
All For You is another of the many songs on the album that shows off Don Walker’s lyrical talents. This is a good as any of the great Chisel ballads – you can hear the sincerity in Barnes’ voice and the themes of love, loss, and hope will no doubt resonate with the long-time Chisel fans that have no doubt experienced a lot since their heady days at the Largs Pier Hotel.
The album closer is the poignant I’ve Got Things To Do, written and sung by the late Steve Prestwich. Prestwich apparently recorded this just as a demo but the band decided not to have Barnes record it, instead preserving the raw emotion of the original take. It was certainly the right choice, and a fine choice to honour their former bandmate.
No Plans sees Cold Chisel back to their best and this album highlights the integral ingredients that made them such an iconic band.
Mitchell Robertson
Hard drinking lead singer Jimmy Barnes has gone sober, Don Walker gained a new band of followers with his work with Tex, Don and Charlie and long-time drummer Steve Prestwich sadly passed away in 2011.
After 2011’s sell-out Light The Nitro reunion tour, Chisel has decided to re-enter the studio and have produced an effort that can easily stand alongside their back catalogue.
Right from the opening bar of the lead track No Plans we can be assured that Chisel are back, and back to their best. The track is a great lyric of the current mood of the band, as well as a terrific vehicle for Barnes to show off the full extent of his vocal range. From those first few seconds you’re reminded that nobody can quite sing like him.
Personally I feel that the best track on the album is HQ454 Monroe, an exceedingly catchy rock n roll number about what the whole genre is really all about – girls and fast cars. This is classic rock n roll, catchy guitar, great vocals and real rock n roll themes – girls and cars! What holds the song is the greatly underappreciated Don Walker’s pounding piano. I dare you not to have your feet tapping at the end of the song. I also feel the band erred in not making this the lead single.
All For You is another of the many songs on the album that shows off Don Walker’s lyrical talents. This is a good as any of the great Chisel ballads – you can hear the sincerity in Barnes’ voice and the themes of love, loss, and hope will no doubt resonate with the long-time Chisel fans that have no doubt experienced a lot since their heady days at the Largs Pier Hotel.
The album closer is the poignant I’ve Got Things To Do, written and sung by the late Steve Prestwich. Prestwich apparently recorded this just as a demo but the band decided not to have Barnes record it, instead preserving the raw emotion of the original take. It was certainly the right choice, and a fine choice to honour their former bandmate.
No Plans sees Cold Chisel back to their best and this album highlights the integral ingredients that made them such an iconic band.
Mitchell Robertson