- Creative outlets for Australian performers are often hard to come by in this country since government support for the arts seems to be an afterthought, if it’s even thought of at all. Being multi-talented is not a guarantee of success, but finding ways to be able to work across genres and to push your creation before the greatest number of ears and eyes –perhaps- is. Brendan Maclean has found success by utilising his talent in film (Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsby), television (ABC TV’s F*cking Adelaide), stage (Velvet with the redoubtable Marcia Hines) and in music. The many strings to his bow pay off handsomely in this, his first album, And The Boyfriends.
In the past, many of Maclean’s releases have been decent pop bangers with some salty lyrics and/or videos to match (to wit, the YouTube banned but ultimately award-winning clip for 2017’s House of Air). There are a couple of those tracks on here – the opening two particularly – Hibernia and Where’s The Miracle. However, what makes this album the more engaging and satisfying is where Maclean goes from there, and the people he’s chosen to collaborate with.
Producer, co-lyricist, keyboard player and on several tracks backing vocalist (as well as co-vocal on one outstanding song) is Sydney’s Sarah Belkner. Her influence on the recording is strong, it really seems as if Maclean, an openly proud gay man, and Belkner, married to the album’s recording engineer and mixer Richard Belkner are kindred spirits. Maclean hasn’t shied away from gritty topics before in his lyrics, often laying bare his relationships and thoughts on his place in the world, and the lyrical content on And The Boyfriends is no different. In some places like Tenderness and Goes Without Saying the delivery by Maclean leans to lyrical poetry and not disposable pop. Tenderness has an echo of the glorious duet Snowed In At Wheeler Street between Kate Bush and Elton John on her 2011 album 50 Words For Snow.
Several other first-rate Australian independent artists - Donny Benét, Kira Puru, Ainslie Wills – and DJ/Producer Paul Mac lend their individual talents, making it an album of more subtlety than might be first expected. Maclean’s theatrical background allows him the ability to switch between styles without one being more polished than another. So, the touching ballads at the mid-point of the release, can flow easily to the mid-tempo smooth pop of Quiet Company and Ghost. The other major feature of And The Boyfriends is that when the backing vocalists appear it almost turns those tracks into duets: their part in the song is not just mere colour and interest but an integral part of the song’s structure. Ultimately these become the filigree surrounding the album’s high point in the “proper” duet with Sarah Belkner Layer on the Love, where Belkner’s pure vocals entwine effortlessly with Maclean’s at times fragile emotional delivery, in the lower register. While the album overall deserves repeat listening, Layer on the Love is worth programming “repeat” on your preferred listening device alone.
It is pleasing to witness strong and worthwhile releases from openly diverse in gender and sexuality Australian artists being embraced by the wider music listening community this year – Cub Sport, Electric Fields, Being Jane Lane, Death Club 7 – to name a few. Brendan Maclean displays exquisite quality on And The Boyfriends without compromising a scintilla of his multi-talented persona.
- Blair Martin.