If career trajectories/trends are your thing, consider Devastations. The three-piece Australian band (now stationed in Berlin) released its second album on Brassland, the label operated by writer Alec Hanley Bemis and Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National. Like the National, Devastations have taken up residence with Beggars Banquet for their 2008 release Yes, U, a follow-up to the outstanding 2006 record Coal.
Nick Cave comparisons follow the band wherever it goes, but I can’t help but make a comparison more familiar to my music collection, and that’s Morphine.
With a mysterious/inviting baritone, Devastations singer Conrad Standish (an avid Ultramagnetic MC’s fan) sounds both brooding and vulnerable, much in the same way Mark Sandman (R.I.P.) used to.
On Mistakes, the lead single from Yes, U (due out Feb. 5), a moody bassline is the company to Standish’s misery: “I can see my reflection / in the tracks of your tears / now why must I destroy all that / I claim to love / tell me why.”
Devastations | Mistakes
From Coal (2006, Brassland):
(Such a great opening line: “The wine may have loosened my tongue / but you’re gonna thank me later on.”)
sI’ve just finished lidtening to ther Devs YES YOU album.
These guys write and perform like seasoned artists. Their lyrics, music arrangements and standards of musicianship
often beggars belief. YES YOU has now moved to the top of my current collection. Keep it up.
\Mollie of Melbourne