THE BLACKEYED SUSANS – REVEAL YOURSELF

This is Christmas come early, complete with a beautifully “wrapped” box and gorgeous artwork courtesy of Madeleine Stamer. This box-set contains three CD’s and a DVD that encompasses twenty years of a band that formed in Perth from the ashes of The Triffids and Chads Tree; played cover versions of everything from Prince and Hot Chocolate to Bruce Sprinsteen and John Cale; and featured two of Australia’s best voices. The Blackeyed Susans have always been about as far away from hip as you can get, perennial outsiders doing their own thing, always detached from fashions and fad; and if this collection of fifty-five songs tells you anything, it is the virtues of such an approach. These are songs, written by song-writers – they are not of a moment in time, they defy the decades and remain glorious pieces that will be enjoyed into the next century. This One Eats Souls, Don’t Call Yourself an Angel, No Direction Home…I could list most all the tunes here, and a few they have left off. The third disc contains demo, live and single versions of such treats as State Trooper, Oceans of You and a previously unreleased version of the Hoodoo Gurus Zanzibar. Put a ribbons around it and stick it under the tree.

****1/2