Australian Crawl

Here at TSATF HQ we love a bit of good ol' Australian Crawl, or Aussie Crawl as we colloquially know them.

While we never listen to their work on a daily basis, when we do it is usually with sustained interest. Inevitably, listening to the band's work is accompanied by a game of "What the hell is he singing about?" Because, let's face it, regular vocalist James Reyne and occasional lead singer Guy McDonough are quite loose with their use of syllables. They both share a common trait of distorting and contorting the English language in such an unusual way.

Quite commonly I will listen to a track - and take into account that I have been listening to these tracks for a number of decades - and then read the lyric sheet and think "there is no way you have just sung those words!"

For example, take a listen to "Letter From Zimbabwe" below. Do you know what they're on about?



Nup. Didn't think so.

And it's not as if the songs have lyrics that are intelligence-starved either - the lyrics, when you read them, are quite literate and clever. It's just that the vocalists seemed to be somewhat linguistically challenged...

Still, even if you can't work out the lyrics when listening, the band were adept at some catchy musicianship, with listeners being able to hum the guitar lines and bass lines of their most popular songs almost as much at the vocal line! That to me is the mark of a well constructed song.

The band's entire back catalog has been reissued in 2014 and is now all available on Spotify. Take a listen to the band's Greatest Hits again below!

ENJOY!!!