“Edinburgh, Galway, Nashville, Ulladulla / Breakin’ my heart / In four places.” That’s quite a trip even for a group that has toured the world, climbed the heights and survived the trials that playing in a rock’n’roll band can bring.
The lines are from The Waterboy, the magnificent opening track to You Am I’s 11th studio album, The Lives of Others. You Am I fans know how many great songs Tim Rogers has written since the band released their debut album Sound As Ever in 1993. This one is right up there with them. The Waterboy is a song about inspiration, being lifted up by a song, wondering if and how there was still a way to find a way forward in music. The conclusion is there for all to hear in the song (“Ventricle, aorta, muscle and blood / Building a heart in four places”) and right through these 12 pulsing tracks. Rogers wasn’t thinking of The Waterboy as a song for the band when he wrote it. At the time he didn’t even know if there would be another You Am I record. Many of these songs were written on a 2019 trip to the New South Wales south coast, where the band would rehearse when they were starting out in late 1989. Anyone who loves classic You Am I albums like Hi Fi Way, Hourly, Daily, #4 Record and Dress Me Slowly will recognise the spirit in these tracks as well as the care and craft behind the songwriting and recording.
Tracklisting
- The Waterboy
- The Third Level
- Rosedale Redux
- Manliness
- DRB Hudson
- We All Went Deaf Overnight
- Rubbish Day
- Readers’ Comments
- I’m My Whole World Tonight
- Lookalikes
- Woulda Been Me
- The Lives Of Others