Saying Paul Kelly has gone back to first principles with his 29th album may be perplexing. There is a generation who don’t know and another who may not remember that restlessness was not always his state of being. That wondering what direction the Melbourne-based songwriter has taken was not a thought that occurred on the eve of each album release.
Until the late 90s Kelly had, for two decades, worked steadily (and to increasing sales) with songs built for live performance. There were traditionally shaped bands behind him – the Dots, the Coloured Girls or the Messengers – and there were melodic hooks and foursquare beats, guitars to the front and storytelling and locale at the centre of the lyrics. He was good at it too. Maybe too comfortably good for his own sake.
