COLD CHISEL LAST WAVE OF SUMMER REVIEW
I learned in August 1983 that Cold Chisel were breaking up as a band. While to an extent the bands breakup was always in the works (and had been since early 1980) to many fans it was a real shock.
They seemed to be really firing. Their previous album, Circus Animals (1982) had them on a well established roll, both as Australia's best radio and live band.
Cold Chisel embarked on their LAST STAND tour, in October '83, then rescheduled for December of that year after Jimmy Barnes' voice gave out mid tour.
The last Stand concerts broke attendance records in every Australian city and the movie of the final tour made full cinema release some 12 months later.
Cold Chisel finally brought down the curtain on their career to date anyway December 15th, 1983.
Their final studio album, "20th Century" (recorded late '83 and early '84) was released to rave reviews, many noting it's live vibrant sound making many wonder why they were indeed gone....
then silence, for a long time....
Over the intervening years moves were made to get Cold Chisel back together, at one point the members being offered large amounts of cash to reform all to no avail.>
After a 16 year hiatus, Cold Chisel have reformed & are back with their latest offering,
Recorded in four Sydney Studios between October '97 - June '98, the album boasts 14 excellent tracks (and one lovely little hidden bonus effort some 40 seconds after the album finishes called "Once Around the Sun").
In true Chisel style, it's hard to put a finger on it being from any time in thier past, so diverse is the track selection. The songs & moods go right from the first album right through their back catalogue.
Most of the tracks were selected for last Wave of Summer were from the first or second studio take and in places the rawness adds a nice quality to the songs.
The paino man, Don Walker handles most but not all of the song writing duties again for the album and as result there's everything here from ballads to the all out rockers that Chisel are best known for.
The range is demonstrated with songs like "Baby's on Fire" (a nod to AC/DC) through to "Bal-a-Versailles" (a song much like the slow easy artful songs of the first two studio albums) while the newly released single "Water into Wine" which is reminiscent (in a way) of the classic "Just How Many Times" song from the COLD CHISEL album.
This may be seen as subjective on my part, but to my way of thinking, if one had to pick a song on the album that was indeed truly Cold Chisel one need go no further than Track 6, "Yakuza Girls", which will (or should) fit in very nicely next to the classic "Rising Sun" number in the live set.
"Yakuza Girls", although never oficially released as a single, featured as the "Last Wave of Summer" album promotion premiering on the internet In July this year scoring some 220,000 hits in the first 12 hours of Cyber usage.
So, to the critical questions:
Is "Last wave" it the natural musical progression the band would have made in the nineties??
*I think so, given the various solo backgrounds that each member reformed from and the studio technology that now is available. This album is a collective mix of all that is Cold Chisel past, present (& future.)
Is it the best album they've ever done?
*NO! :) only because this writer wants Cold Chisel to stay around to find and make the "perfect" album!!!
For more on the album and the band, see Cold Chisel
or their record company Mushroom Records