The Tiger And MeThe Drifter's Dawn
Four/Four / ABC / Universal

- Melbourne folk-rock-pop-cabaret-and-quite-probably-a-few-other-things-in-there types The Tiger And Me have been doing the do for a while now, long enough – for instance – to aim at an ambitious trilogy of EPs, a sequence begun with The Howling Fire and The Silent City which dropped at either end of 2011 and now, for a big finish, is completed by their second full-length, The Drifter's Dawn.
The Tigers are doing a lot of things big, lately. Signing to ABC imprint Four/Four for instance (joining the likes of Tim Rogers, The Snowdroppers and Boy In A Box). Even the sound of this new album is significantly bigger than what we're used to from the band, on record at least. Producer Steven Schram (Little Red, Eagle And The Worm) has tried to capture the fire of The Tiger And Me's live show and this translates, most obviously, to added thunder, to the point where lots of things (drums and vocals included) dip into distortion. Until I realised this I was wondering if something had gone wrong in the mastering. It's not to say that I don't like it, although, well, maybe I don't, but The Tiger And Me - a band that mess around with indie-folk-pop as much as anything else - it's like, woah there doggies, I was not expecting that.
It's an interesting way of thinking about this new record. Those two EPs were themed around different elements of the Tigers' sound. Letting things rip wildly on The Howling Fire, drawing back into the cold, dark and quiet for The Silent City and stitching everything back together here on The Drifter's Dawn. The band describe the progression slightly more ominously, starting with a descent into madness, followed by a protracted battle with said lunacy and, finally, surrendering to insanity's embrace ...and the consequences.
The Drifter's Dawn does indeed seem a little strung out. Whether it's the love-crazed mania of the sinuously rocking Dance With The Devil, the brittle pop and emotional emptiness of Pantomime or the spiritual rocking and schizophrenic ramblings of The Prophet Told Me, everything is, as promised, on the ragged edge. The self-destructive romance of Waltz #3 does indeed, as their presser says, encapsulate a lot of The Tiger And Me sound, with its cabaret feel, capriciously whirling through the waltz. Jack Middle Of The Broken Heart changes things up a bit with an upbeat groove that rips off Oasis (ripping off George Harrison's Wonderwall). Whatever its origin, it's a thumping tune and clearly good enough for two outings, because it has a lot in common with Made It To The Harbour just a little later on. There's also plenty of heart-string-tugging slow and sad folk dirges (see The Door Swung or A Want That You Wouldn't for instance).
Yes, in the spirit of going big, there's great lashings of all the things that would have made you a fan of The Tiger And Me in the past. I get the feeling that most existing fans will not be disappointed. I have a few reservations: I'm not at all convinced by Steven Schram's distorted choices for the record. It doesn't make it sound more live, it just sounds... odd. Additionally, although it took me a while to find my way into it, I ended up being a big fan of wild songs like Red Road on Silent City. Ironically, I think it's that rawness, grittiness, that the band were looking for on this new record, which is missing. After a couple of weeks, I haven't yet got that sensation from The Drifter's Dawn, maybe it'll set in later? Hell, if there were a significant amount of it here I don't think Four/Four would be half as interested in them. It comes back to the breadth of the sound that The Tiger & Me offer, there are some bits of it I'm interested in just much more than others. If The Drifter's Dawn embraces all of the facets of their madness, the consequence may be that I can't.

- Chris Cobcroft.

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