So I might be a little slow off the mark with this one, but having just got my hands on the latest EP from Sydney based singer-songwriter Jack Carty, Wine & Consequence, I felt compelled to direct your ears towards some sweet, sleepy tunes from this charming troubadour.
And when I say sleepy, I do not mean I’m nodding off to dreamland. It’s more like, when I listen to it, I want to be lying lazily in a wide-open field at sunset and drinking homemade lemonade out of a thermos.
This is music that encourages you to slow down, listen, and engage with what’s going on around you. As Carty croons, “you can’t hit a moving target” in the opening track ‘Sunlight’, I cannot help but slow my pace and pick my gaze off the concrete to see what’s what.
The six tracks all roll out in the same manner, one lilting tune after the other, but all with a distinct and unique story. He likes to sing about love, that is for sure, and for a barely twenty-something man, this could come across as twee, naff, pretentious, all of the above.
Instead, as the words tumble and flow around his assured guitar playing, I’m alarmed that such maturity can spill forth from such a young heart, but Carty’s rich voice, honest without being earnest, easily backs up the sentiments in his song writing.
And you know, I met Jack once. We were crossing the street and met midway. He turned around and came back onto the side he had come from and chatted to me for five whole light changes. If that doesn’t say ‘nice man”, I don’t know what does.
Wine & Consequence is definitely a nice EP from a nice man, but that’s not all it is. It has this lovely ability to make me want to address all my adult responsibilities like love and life and loss, with a childlike openness, and has become a more rewarding experience with each listen.
You may notice the word that I didn’t mention in the title of this week’s column is ‘wine’, as in Wine & Consequence. But you didn’t really need me to explain that, did you? Anyhoos, it was left out for a reason, so I could mini-mix about it, yay!
I love wine. It is delicious. I love red wine and white wine and French wine and Spanish wine. I even love cask wine when I am required to smuggle it in to places where it should not be. Which is nowhere, so clearly I’m doing nothing wrong.
In a moment of complete gratuity, I would like to tell you, dear readers, that I have not been drinking as much wine as I would like of late. Don’t worry, nothing to do with detoxing, or anything ridiculous like that, but I booked a ticket overseas that I can only afford if I live like a pauper for a few months and the budget does not allow for wine. Not even cask.
So here are a couple of songs I’ve been quenching my thirst with over the past few weeks. But I wouldn’t worry about me too much – did I mention my destination was Paris? Vin rouge, vin blanc and champagne, here I come. x
All the Wine – The National
[youtube LuD2U0NIohc]
Champagne From A Paper Cup – Death Cab For Cutie
[youtube NsnKZjdQuDA]
Lilac Wine – Nina Simone
[youtube nILUfuoEUc0]
