- Reviewing a new Summer Flake album is kind of difficult. Not because Steph Crase's music is hard to describe – it's pretty straight-down-the-middle, guitar-based indie-rock – but because on paper it seems like it could be kind of unremarkable. The instrumentation and production is pretty by-the-numbers for the genre (there's drums, bass, a couple of guitars, a lead vocal with a harmony or two, maybe the occasional keyboard part in the background), the songs tend to not stray too far from mid-tempo and mid-fidelity, and the playing is virtually never flashy while always being solid (it helps that Crase can definitely wrangle a guitar). And yet, the impending release of something new from Summer Flake always gets me really excited. Over the course of now three albums and a few EPs Crase has become one of my personal favourite Australian songwriters, an opinion shared by an increasing number of guitar-pop aficionados around the country (as well as overseas – Henry Rollins counts himself an avowed fan).
I guess that's the thing: this project puts Crase's songwriting right at the forefront, and that songwriting is always unfailingly strong. It's certainly the case on this latest album, Seasons Change. Whether it's the fuzzy chug of single Hand In The Fire, the slower, more wistful I Can't Go On, or the comparatively uptempo rocker In The Dark, the melodies are always sharp and memorable while the songs stick around for just long enough to take us on a ride without ever outstaying their welcome. And while they might not be overly showy, that's not to say that they're not inventive and adventurous in their own way. Crase has said that this album is supposedly more upbeat and having 'more pace' than previous records, but if that's true then it's by the smallest of degrees. You could probably pick a random handful of these songs and mix them with another bunch from her previous few records and they'd work together just as well. That's not a criticism, if anything it's a testament to the consistent quality of the songs contained within.
Summer Flake doesn't display some of the quirkier tendencies of some of Crase's contemporaries: not the rawness and weirdness of her ex-Batrider bandmate Sarah Mary Chadwick, or the off-kilter other-worldliness of her other act, the Ellen Carey lead Fair Maiden. Nor is it quite as immediately poppy as something like the various guises of our own Kellie Lloyd, or as wordsmithy as someone like Jamie Hutchings. Yet, Steph Crase has crafted a collection of songs that is absolutely the equal of any of these artists, both on Seasons Change and throughout the entirety of the Summer Flake catalogue.
- Cameron Smith.