Fever Longing Still is Paul Kelly’s most conventional long-player since 2017’s Life Is Fine. Co-produced by the artist with engineer Steven Shram–notably along with Kelly’s longtime band mates–a slate of a dozen original songs metamorphoses into the unified work of a bonafide recording artist by the conclusion of its forty-one-plus minutes.
At its heart, this is the sound of archetypal folk-rock in its most mature form, sourced from the varied origins attributed on the back cover of the enclosed twelve-page booklet. But the deceptively intelligent influences are entirely in keeping with an album title that sounds like nothing so much as the beginning of a Japanese haiku; in reality, it is an excerpt from a Shakespearean sonnet (upon the likes of which Kelly based an entire LP in 2016, Seven Sonnets And A Song).
Fittingly enough, the opening cut references the cover image. But ‘Houndstooth Dress’ is as adoring as it is suggestive in its attitude, those multi-levels of meaning right in keeping with musicianship that teems with ideas, from nephew Dan Kelly’s blistering electric guitar to the author’s ghostly vocals. This is no more the typical sing-songwriter fare than the ominous “Love Has Made A Fool of Me:” Here, Kelly allows the ensemble some room to move, most prominently via Cameron Bruce’s Farfisa organ.
Chiming guitars reinforced by vigorous acoustic strumming drive home the sardonic tone of “Taught By Experts.” Comparably disarming is the dichotomy presented in “Hello Melancholy, Hello Joy,” where horns frame a point as emotional as it is literate (Paul Kelly’s autobiography How to Make Gravy is absolutely engrossing).
Steel guitar curling in and out of the “Double Business Bound” arrangement would seem part of the satire of country music before a close read of the dramatic narrative within the printed lyrics. There’s hardly any mistaking the earthy sentiment of “Let’s Work It Out In Bed,” however, where the rise and fall of the orchestration is an apt metaphor.
The multiple production angles Kelly and the company adopt on Fever Longing Still might come off as scattershots if not for the material’s strength and the core ensemble’s practiced unity. As if reflections of the sonics themselves, reminiscences become ultra vivid during “All Those Smiling Faces,” while the very absence of sentimentality there conjures a stoic sense of mortality as true-to-life as the near-giddy whimsy of “Harpoon to the Heart.”
The former sounds like a daydream brought to life, and the latter is a centuries-old folk tune (though the second is one number without acknowledged precedent, except in its wordless homage to iconic guitarists Chet Atkins and Les Paul). Kelly’s somewhat reedy voice is front and center on “Back To The Future,” but the slightly nasal tones only make the nuances of his vocal phrasing more honest.
Since his last straightforward effort, Paul Kelly released two albums based on the great outdoors–Nature and Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds–and collaborated with Paul Grabowsky on a jazz-oriented piano/vocal project called Please Leave Your Light On. Such diverse enterprises, combined with this Australian native’s prolific output, continuously refresh his artistic outlook.
Thus, the purposefully executed music on this twenty-ninth overall Paul Kelly studio endeavor, primarily recorded at the Roundhead Studio of Crowded House/Split Enz member Neil Finn, directly reflects the unflinching gaze emanating from the images of the artist’s unwavering eyes as captured by Giulia McGauran on this package’s inner sleeve.
While Fever Longing Still recalls Paul Kelly’s most accessible work—all the way back to 1986’s Gossip—he hardly repeats himself. Take this expression of yearning for rest, “Eight Hours Sleep:” The performance moves like a lullaby in the hands of the author and just three other accompanists, making for a tender introduction to a sweet recollection called “Going To The River With Dad.”
Closing in such an intimate, affectionate fashion, this track compels the thought that this gifted artist’s folk hero status in his homeland should lend itself to comparable global fame.
