- Brisbane’s original alt.country/folk-rock musical collective, The Gin Club, have returned after a bit of an absence on their behalf. Their fifth album, Southern Lights, arrives after an almost five year wait following 2010’s Deathwish, definitely their longest between records. While the group haven’t exactly been quiet in the interim, having released an outtakes compilation in Hissy Fits Volume 2 plus a live album and a 10-year anniversary re-release of their self-titled record, it’s reassuring to have The Club releasing new music as they enter a dozen years of being a band.

Southern Lights doesn’t attempt to push the group into any new areas. As far as albums by established bands go, this definitely falls under the ‘consolidating their strengths’ category; all of the songs fall within comfortable spitting distance of The Gin Club’s core sound, a slightly folky, somewhat poppy form of country-rock. There’s nothing as sparse as ‘Dear Rose’ from their self-titled record, nothing as poppy as ‘Drugflowers’ off of their sophomore Fear Of The Sea, and nothing as balls out as Deathwish opener ‘Pennies’. What remains, though, is perhaps the most consistent album the band have released, and at a mere 10 songs it’s also the most concise Gin Club record. Given the fact that the band currently has six songwriters, this is surely no mean feat.

There’s certainly a good amount of variety on offer, still. The opening one-two punch of first single, the Adrian Stoyle penned ‘Dancing With The Ghost’ and Ben Salter’s sole contribution ‘Everything About You’ are probably the most insistent pop-songs here, before things calm down with Conor MacDonald’s obligatory slow, sad song, on this album being ‘Capricornia’, sounding like one of Magnolia Electric Company’s more sombre numbers (Conor’s other contribution, ‘Proud Donkey’, treads a similar path). Scotty Regan’s ‘Alcatraz’ is the most rocking song in the collection, but its medium tempo and restrained vocals keep it firmly within Southern Lights’ scope. Brad Pickersgill gets two numbers, the upbeat and killer-chorus sporting ‘Brave New World’ and Neil Young-esque twang of ‘Just Don’t Rain’. The album’s most naked moment, Ola Karlsson’s sublime ‘Two Beats’, gets by with some fingerpicked guitar, a string arrangement and some mellotron, backed by Texas Tea’s Kate Jacobson. Karlsson also gets the record’s final word, ending the album’s decidedly more downbeat second half with a grand exit via the gradually swelling ‘Swing Low’.

Credit must go to the band and engineer Murray Paas’ lush arrangements, along with Magoo’s sterling mixing job, for gelling this collection of songs together. Every number feels one part of a whole, something that can sometimes be lost on Gin Club albums of the past. As someone who fondly remembers seeing the band’s regular mid-week appearances at old haunt The Troubadour back in the day, Southern Lights might be my new favourite Gin Club album, something I haven’t said in the decade since Fear Of The Sea.

- Cameron Smith.