This past fall, Scott and Charlene’s Wedding ‒ the lo-fi brainchild of Aussie musician Craig Dermody ‒ released a solid debut LP named Paravista Social Club. Dermody has swiftly released new material, this time in the form of a five-track EP. The new EP doesn’t show us a new side of Dermody ‒ if anything it is slightly more angry than his debut full-length ‒ yet it does allow him to release more material and hone his craft further.
The EP opens with the title track, a brash song that happens to be the most lyrically sound on the album. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean a whole lot. Dermody tends to lapse into fairly mediocre lyrics that can’t keep up with the consistently deft instrumentation. The lyrics attest to Dermody’s at times grating knack for excessive emotion. Emotion is obviously key to any sort of effective art, yet a lack of moderation can get exhausting, a phenomenon that can be seen on the second track, “Gammy Leg.” Again, the melodies are sound, but Dermody occasionally fails to reign himself in and focus his music. “I Wanna Die” is a perfectly competent punk track, but it fails to move much beyond being an moody ‒ if sincere ‒ love song. The rest of the EP remains in a fairly consistent tone, a lo-fi arrangement of punk rock that gets a bit sleepy by the end.
Even if Dermody doesn’t give us anything particularly fascinating on this EP, this project remains promising due to its raw, sincere tone. On future records, Dermody needs to funnel this unhinged manner into a more emotionally focused and intriguing work. For now, this EP works in a likely unintended way: the exhaustion that comes with such an emotionally unrelenting pace makes its brevity something of a relief.
Rating: 5.3/10
MP3: Scott and Charlene’s Wedding “Two Weeks”
Buy: iTunes or Insound! vinyl
