Album Review: Lower Plenty – Hard Rubbish

At first glance, Lower Plenty might seem like that local group of reclusive teenagers who got together in their parent’s garage and, having dug up a few rusty guitars and found some pots and pans to bang on, decided to give music a go. Certainly, with the raw, unproduced sound and off-kilter vocals of Hard Rubbish (songs were recorded on 8-track players often in one take) they aren’t aiming for technical refinement. But take a closer look and you will discover a band that has masterfully captured the emotive essence of empty abandon and innate loneliness. Tracks like “Strange Beast” and “Friends Wait,” with their plinking guitars, atonally dragged-out vocals, and forlorn melodies, convey a unique sense of desolate folk music. The slow boil of a distorted guitar lends tracks like “Dirty Flowers” a sense of anguish and entrapment. Wistful guitars and a steadfast tambourine imbue “Nullarbor” with a seaside wistfulness. “Grass” might have been a flower-child hippie tune if it weren’t somehow sadder and more melancholic. The acoustic shine of “White Walls” directly clashes with weary, downturned vocals, while the subtle power of the melody from “Close Enough” hints at a vast disaffection and tugs at the edges of hopelessness. Though they may not be the prettiest sounding group out there, but there is certainly more to Hard Rubbish than initially meets the ear.