BURNING BOY – JOE MCKEE

Burning Boy, the debut album from Perth native Joe McKee, is about as whimsical as you can get. A big move from McKee’s previous outfit Snowman, Burning Boy is a result of a residency in London where he yearned for home. A collection of love songs for his Darling Hills home, 35 kms south of Perth, Burning Boy is a loose mess of shimmering strings, wispy, whispering vocals and unidentified ethereal sounds – the kind of album a yoga instructor might consider as an alternative to their meditative sitar album. Each song as dulcet as the next, it becomes hard to distinguish one track from another. An Open Mine croons of Western Australia’s contemporary gold rush, whilst Darling Hills holds no pretence in painting a romantic image of his own landscape, complete with soaring cinematic strings. The undulating tolling inThe Garden creates a dreamlike, mesmerising state and rolls forward with a swaying momentum which is lacking throughout most of the album. Unsurprisingly, the lush strings make their appearance before too long. Final track Blue Valeria is a modern-day troubadour ballad; the broken-chord strum of a discordant guitar and short, cascading lyrics summarise McKee’s, wispy world of revieres.

2.5/5