Review by Toxic Pete - June 2007


Listening to 'Songs From The Old Illawalla' by Glyn Bailey is like going to a new restaurant with an old friend and partaking of new but familiar 'fare' that's fulfilling and wholesome whilst feeling comfortable with the company you're in.

Glyn Bailey has put together a pretty mind-blowin' work here; vocally he often sounds very much like David Bowie but with content, phrasing and delivery more akin to Nick Cave or Lou Reed and, weirdly, with occasional hints of Johnny Cash. There's no getting away from it, Bailey does sound very 'familiar'! However, that's not a down-side and Bailey is sufficiently different to the aforementioned to still be very much his own man. And, it has to be said, 'Songs From The Old Illawalla' is annoyingly bloody good; I say annoyingly coz Bailey's not actually treading very much new ground with what he does - it's like he's calling favours from the early 70's and mixing what he gets with twenty-first century acceptability to come up with works rammed full of cultish obliqueness yet retaining a hefty degree of pop sensibility and commerciality. I really like what Glyn Bailey's doing here - it's effortlessly entertaining but somehow thought provoking and evocative; strong songs with big hearts and even bigger souls! It's a long work (just short of fifty-seven minutes) and the whole thing is produced and finished to a very high degree - the album has quality and value and polish and wow running straight down the middle.

'Songs From The Old Illawalla' is a bit of a digital Tardis; on the outside it appears quite normal and easily understood - but, open it up and the whole thing becomes very big indeed - there's far more to this album than there initially appears! And, after a couple of listens I found Bailey winning me over and beckoning me further into his rather unusual world; tempting me in with delightfully tasty audio morsels and moving, often disturbing, lyrics. Yep, the more I hear the more I'm into it.

Glyn Bailey is quite obviously an eloquent and descriptive wordsmith and he brings his reality-poetry to life with well crafted musical 'scores' and impressive arrangements. The end result, as demonstrated on this superb album, 'Songs From The Old Illawalla', is massively impressive and quite compelling. Excellent this, pretty unusual and really enjoyable. 'Scuse me, I've just gotta go press 'play' again........!

(Rhythm & Booze rating 10)

by Peter J Brown aka toxic pete - © 2007  Toxic Pete