Dave Graney

“As I have said many times nobody else is making music like this. A combination of the familiar tropes of rock and pop intermingled with literary lyrical explorations, jazz elements, ambient sounds, and a degree of abstraction masking astute commentary on the state of the world today. There are more ideas in these 15 songs than most artists achieve in their careers”.Bob Osborne – DIFFERENT NOISES – Salford UK Dave Graney and Clare Moore have in recent years been swinging between song focused studio albums (like this one) and more band focused rock albums, (like their previous set In A Mistly).(strangely)(emotional) is so carefully titled because that’s the age we live in. A person has to be sure and careful of their words. It’s a sensitive area, the world, in 2024. Even though it is also brutal , viral and violent all at once. (The ground we walk upon is contested and just holding together with surface tension). So the words are quarantined from each other, in parentheses so as not to be qualifying or commenting on the other. The sounds on the album come from vintage drum machines, electric (six and twelve string) and acoustic (nylon and steel string) guitars, pedal steel, harp, harmonica, electric piano, drums, vibes, marimba, mellotron and tenor and soprano sax.The words are rich, playful and very personal. Dave Graney is a proud Creative Creep.(strangely)(emotional) comes after a year where Graney and Moore toured the country to joy and acclaim with their 90s band Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes. This album was cooking away in the background all the while.It’s a Dave Graney and Clare Moore album. They’ve always done their own thing. This time, it’s (strangely)(emotional)“Last night (Sat) at the Great Club in Sydney's Marrickville, a rolling triumph. Dave, solo and acoustic with brand new songs, a brace of wistful glances back at childhood, fam and hometown, and not quite like anything that has come before from this extraordinary maker of sonic stories. Then more with lifetime offsider and partner of all labours CLARE MOORE, multi-instrumentaling it on melodica then piano before making those drums sing and wail like few can. And then a 'power trio' as Dave described it, and it was, with the mid-set appearance of a local (Sydney) bassplayer, Gregory Thorsby, who knocked everyone flat with jazz and funk stylings that would not have been out of place in Weather Report, Sly And The Family Stone or the classic Miles Davis rosary of albums from 1967-74. This, a perfect reinvention of all the diamonds from the vast Graney-Moore back catalogue. All this and 'Traumatic Shit,' a kind of talking blues that gave Derek And Clive a run for their money. We split our britches laughing, I tells ya. Yea, among the two sets of wonder and stardust, personal faves like 'That Old Swagger', 'Wilco Got No Wilco', 'Night Of The Wolverine', uberclassic 'You're JUst Too Hip, Baby', and an encore featuring a mighty Ronsonesque wigout guitar solo that took off the tops of our heads. The new album '( strangely) ( emotional)' is out in April. All I can say is GET IN”.Mark Cornwall author and musician