Artist: Powderfinger
Album Title: Vulture St
Label: Universal
Bones:
Summary: The 'finger's return to rock
Reviewed By: Stuart 'Record Store Guy' McPhee

In which Powderfinger takes the phrase '70s Rock' and run with it. Yet unlike any of the young upstarts that are current passengers of the "Retro Rock" bandwagon, the 'finger have been here before. Problem was nobody heard them the first time. Their debut, 1994's 'Parables for Wooden Ears' was a critical and commercial failure. As far as titles go, sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.

So what does a title like 'Vulture Street' tell us? Birds lurking above feasting on the remains of a world run mad? Let's just settle on it being named after a street in Brisbane and get down to brass tacks shall we?

Vulture Street is the rock record Bern and the boys were promising for a while now and they deliver in huge quantities of riffs straight out of the Zeppelin/Kiss songbook. Evidence can be seen on opener 'Rockin' Rocks', the tour de force 'Pockets' while on 'Stumblin', for a few minutes guitarist Darren Middleton steals Jimmy Page's crown with a powerful wielding of his axe. Also cooking is first single, '(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind', which is the best song about a stalker since 'Every Breath You Take'.

But good habits are hard to change and Powderfinger still craft some fantastic anthems to please their avid live audience. Inspiration is tastefully drawn from the passing of Bernard Fanning's brother John last year to cancer. The one-two combination of 'Since You've Been Gone' and 'Love Your Way' display the continual growth in Fanning's writing. Theories behind my 'world gone mad' assertion of the album title can be drawn from 'How Far Have We Really Come?'

So where does this album place the boys in the current spectrum of music? It will of course solidify their position as one of Australia's premier rock acts. However overseas success still is out of reach, not because they aren't up to the task, simply that America just doesn't get it. Which will forever be their loss.