Sydney crooner Jack Ladder and his band The Dreamlanders are out in time for summer with their fourth album; Playmates. Three years after previous album Hurtsville, which was shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize for 2011, Playmates has been both a long time coming and with a lot to live up to.
The album kicks off with lead single Come On Back This Way and it’s going to stick in your head for days. It’s a slightly creepy little love story driven by a jaunty synth hook evocative of a 70’s B-movie and featuring backing vocals by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten. Ladder’s baritone is atmospheric, providing narrative voice to a guy who just really, really wants a girl to come home with him after a night out. The accompanying video has a guy with a hook for a hand in it nailing the shit out of a pedal steel guitar solo, so you just know it’s outstanding.
Following tracks, Her Hands and Model Worlds are a lot more laid back in delivery by Ladder. His voice never takes its hands off the wheel but the Dreamlanders provide an exquisite means of transportation. Her Hands is a lush, nuanced soundscape, anchored by a punchy backbeat and featuring gorgeous, multilayered synths and another touch of pedal steel guitar thrown in the mix; which is just dreamy.
Ladder’s high standard of songwriting permeates Model Worlds, conjuring up some poignant imagery that his mournful baritone really drives home. Reputation Amputation takes a noisy, industrial-esque route, with heavily distorted guitars whining over a ceaselessly pulsating rhythm and Ladder’s vocals filtered quite harshly. What I loved was the subtle mimicry of a heart rate monitor just before the crescendo, while Ladder pleads with a fictional doctor, wailing for him to ‘cut it off’. It’s a good song in isolation, but dropped in the middle of the album here it may feel a little out of place to some.
Let Me Love You is gothic lounge music, the picture of a smoky room packed with bleary eyed patrons listening to Ladder softly crooning springs immediately to mind. The whole thing becomes really dark when punctuated by lines like ‘And if you won’t let me love you, I’ll set myself on fire’. To Keep And To Be Kept is the other song on the album featuring Sharon Van Etten, her voice and Ladder’s providing an arresting set of vocals to Ladder’s blue-collar honest lyrics about love and promises. The Miracle is another dreamy, synthy number that could quite seamlessly be inserted into the opening credits of just about any romantic comedy from the 80s, it’s sublime.
Neon Blue furthers the dabble in an industrial sound, albeit much less harsh than the aforementioned Reputation Amputation, with Ladder warbling instead of howling over a staccato guitar riff that plays a much more subtle role in the background. It lacks the wild ferocity of Reputation but leaves Ladder’s vocals unadulterated, a pleasing effect. Penultimate track Our Ascension is possibly the vocal highlight of the album, Ladder really drawing out and exploring his voice over a soundscape that slowly puts together layers of noise into a fully-realised zenith. The album sails off into the sunset with Slow Boat To China, a fitting ballad that draws the curtains with an air of majesty on a really nifty album overall.
The Cave and Cohen comparisons are abundant and easy to use for Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders, but his off-beat lyrics and the quirky synth experimentations are what really forge their signature sound. What can simply be taken away from this album is that a great voice backed by talented musicians is a catalyst for some really beautiful music.
Playmates is out November 7th through Self Portrait and Inertia.