Broken Hearts Ride Free

A Review of Pirate Bride's Lates CD by John Thompson of Cloudstreet

The latest Pirate Brides album is a delight. Broken Hearts Ride Free follows on from their earlier releases Cutlass Wedding and Walking the Planxty and represents a delicious development in the sound, confidence and style of this stand-out Queensland four-piece.

There's been something of a resurgence of the old-timey feel on the Australian acoustic music scene in the last few years, with acts such as The Horse's Leotard, Bluegrassy Knoll and Dev'lish Mary appearing in the Southern states. While The Pirate Brides play similar material, they bring a confidence and comparatively laid-back feel to their work that is both soothing and very, very sweet to the ear.

The Pirate Brides cover some classic material on this album, from Gillian Welch's Back to Wichita to Paul Kelly's Song of the Old Rake. All four members of the band comfortably master the instrumental demands of their old-timey/bluegrass/swing material, but it is vocally that the Pirate Brides really excel. Their harmonies are perfectly structured and beautifully executed, with gorgeous interweaving lines and a great tonal cohesion. The band is not afraid to stretch their sound, with harmonies on the Ryk Rostron original, Jenny being reminiscent of This Guy by The Beatles.

The lead vocals are handled well by John Holmberg and Ryk Rostron, but it is when the harmonies kick in on the choruses, that the Brides make you sit up and smile, with Rose Broe and the addition of the band's new bass-player, Markus Karlsen filling out the sound magnificently. (Markus also adds some particularly good bass lines on Blue Train and Jenny.) Papa's on the Housetop perfectly represents the tight harmonies, quirky interpretation and overall sweet satisfaction of the Pirate Brides sound.

I did feel that a couple of tracks might benefit from a little more compression to bring the voices to the fore, and the inclusion of track times on the sleeve notes would have been useful, but these minor production issues don't stop this from being a great album.

All in all, Broken Hearts Ride Free (the title comes from the chorus of Dave Allan's Blue Train) is a great selection of songs, sung with skill, enthusiasm and a consistently high level of musicality. There is a sense of fun evident in the selection and performance of these songs and tunes that I just love. This is a joyful, exciting, well-produced album from a world-class local band.

John Thompson