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Plum Green - Album Review: Sound Recordings

04 Dec 2018 // A review by Paul Goddard

Plum Green - remember this name. It is easy to remember and if you listen to this album you will never forget it. If you are reading this then hopefully you are here to find some music, some inspiration, someone to connect to beyond the usual day to day that we all get fed via anti social media.

Are you hooked? Read further.

Those who are still listening then let’s take flight,

Innocence, that is what I feel when I listen to Baby Bird, it’s a dawning of realisation, realising that maybe things aren’t always going to play out the way you want them to. That’s my interpretation and I can’t emphasise this enough. The reason I love Plum Green is she writes music that allows us all to translate it in our own way. Killer opening track.

I Hope You Die - is so P.J. Harvey it makes me crack a twisted smile (more about P.J. Harvey later). The tribal drums with those bitter and twisted lyrics underpinned with a crackling guitar just makes me want to see this song played live and maybe email this track to anyone whoever seriously pissed me off

Cannibal - wow the start is almost a copy of The Verve's Lucky Man. Then Cannibal morphs into something darker. Something slow and brooding. The vocals are right in the pocket of less is more. The understated almost white noise guitars add to the brooding atmosphere and at this stage I am completely under the water, sinking into the sonics.

I am rescued, pulled up head soaked and listening to anything that can get me home. Fountain is a blast (and a P.J. Harvey cover) it doesn’t seep in as immediately as other tracks on this album but is refreshing and perfectly placed.

Then we get The Roses, a caustic, acoustic awakening that will connect with anyone who has ever hurt or hurt someone.

The end is near and Funeral Song takes us further down life’s helter skelter. The chorus is almost uplifting, although the melancholy overpowers. Sadness is the overpowering emotion when listening to this song. Let me wallow.

Then just when we think it is all over, Kind Beast gives a glimmer of light. Some hope, a feeling that everything will be alright no matter what life throws at you.

Plum Green, you took me on a journey. It’s one I will never forget and let’s hope more people want to stray from the straight and narrow and make that journey with us too.

Rating: ( 5 / 5 )
 

About Plum Green

Born in a squat in Brixton, growing up in New Zealand and presently residing in Melbourne, Australia, Plum Green combines elements of folk, grunge, goth, and post-rock with her dark lyrical prose. With a focus on crafting intimate live shows her performances are striking and uplifting. Plum's musical releases have been described as a collection of dark textures with lyricism containing intriguing subject matter. Described as luscious, dark and deeply literate, Plum Green's music and lyrics have always had this mix of youthful wisdom, naïve worldliness, a corrupt innocent, which makes them heady and intriguing. Plum has released three EP's – Plum Green, The Red, Karma and the album Rushes.

Plum and her band recently finished recording a full-length album at the all-analogue Sound Recordings studio in Castlemaine. They have released the first single from this album Baby Bird, and named the album Sound Recordings after the studio they recorded in. Baby Bird is available now as a digital single, as well as a 7” record which includes the b-side Little Black Pain on Bandcamp. Sound Recordings will be released in February 2019 on a variety of digital formats on the internet. Physical sales (CDs) of Sound Recordings will be released in New Zealand in February with two performances in the major New Zealand cities of Wellington and Auckland. Plum and the band also have plans for a second European tour in 2020.


Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Plum Green

Releases

Somnambulistic
Year: 2021
Type: Album
Sound Recordings
Year: 2018
Type: Album
Karma
Year: 2016
Type: EP
Rushes
Year: 2012
Type: Album
Live Acoustic
Year: 2011
Type: EP
The Red
Year: 2010
Type: EP

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