Every summer – because there is no season that says Australia more than summer – newspapers, television and radio stations run segments asking us for the most-Australian sounds, the most-Australian songs, the most-Australian artists. It is the usual suspects each time of course, various shades of night sweats and wide open roads, of beer-less pubs and underarms in football clubs, of river camping and beach stomping.
You rarely hear someone say the Cruel Sea. And yet, there may be no band more Australian-sounding than them. They are somewhere between the ultimate surf band and the perfect Sunday afternoon beer garden band, with Tex Perkins’ vocals sounding either, or sometimes simultaneously, laconic and lethal. Having reunited for the 20th anniversary of The Honeymoon is Over in 2013, then again last year – seven years after the death of foundational guitarist James Cruickshank – the Cruel Sea have now had as many returns as Nellie Melba. This time they’ve come back with their first new album in more than 20 years.
