Thursday, May 14, 2015

EP review: New Life by Iain Archibald Band

Country rock can be a contentious genre amongst the country music crowd - it's not 'traditional' country music but nor is it straight-up rock 'n' roll; usually the lyrics sit within the country music lyrical convention and the music is closer to rock, with country accents. Country rock also tends to be a genre that focuses on entertainment - it gets the crowd going, it gets heads nodding and feet tapping. Perhaps that's at the core of some people's objection to it: that it wants to entertain. But show me an audience that doesn't want to be entertained and I'll show you a crowd of critics. 

New Life is a five-track EP by Melbourne outfit Iain Archibald Band. It is entertaining country rock with a lot of heart and a great lead singer - unsurprisingly enough, this gentleman is called Iain Archibald. And even within the genre of country rock we can classify further, so I'd say this band's influences lean more towards Keith Urban than The Wolfe Brothers. They're worth checking out, and I'm confident they are entertaining audiences across Victoria with more of Australia to follow. 

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