REVIEW: Colin Hay, Transcendental Highway (Farren Music)
- Chris Hill
Two Australians (Hay and the recently C.O.-reviewed Rick Springfield) present an interesting contrast, if their recent and future Seattle engagements are compared. Hay, who played the smallish Tractor Tavern 5/20, with an $8 ticket price, offered an intimate glimpse at the man behind the once-inescapable hits "Down Under" and "Who Can It Be Now?". Springfield, with a similar history of ubiquitous hits, has booked the Showbox, an 800+ capacity venue, 6/18, and priced tickets at $27.50. Evidence of two performers with different estimations of their audience, their status, and their musical goals. Is one trying to relive the glory days, while the other reconnects with an audience?
Hay addresses his past fame on "My Brilliant Feat": "Once upon a time, I could do no wrong/though the candle flickers, the flame is never gone/To my brilliant feat/They all pay heed/I hear the crowds roar oh so loudly". It's not envy at the success and adulation he once had that's now enjoyed by others. Rather it's an understanding that nothing's permanent ("The world it won't wait for you/It's got its own things to do") and a fond look back at his moments in the sun.
With this album, Hay continues down the balladeer path of previous, post-Men at Work releases with simply written, romantic vignettes centered around his acoustic guitar, though his backing band provides him ample support. Twelve songs long, the only hollow note comes with "Death Row Conversation", possibly written at 3 a.m. in a lonely hotel room while "Dead Man Walking" played on pay-per-view. While affecting, it treads old ground, or ground perhaps better left to his brilliant countryman Paul Kelly.
That criticism out of the way, it's the exception on the record, which is fortunate for us, as this is his first non- Australian release since 1990. "If I Go" will bring back all the summer memories for which Business As Usual served as the soundtrack. Musically co-written with Bobby Z, it glistens. An immediate attention-getter. The hopeful, hearty "I'll Leave the Light On" and the wind-blown instrumental "Cactus" are similarly potent. Stretching, the Scotland born-and-raised Hay pulls in bagpipes and a snare drum for the inspirational "Freedom Calling" and takes the spoken-lyric path for the title track, a subtly humorous look at the interconnection the internet's provided the world.
But it's truly on the quieter acoustic numbers like "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" where Hay's voice practices its familiar magic with hypnotic wonder.
A gentle snippet of a song hides at the close, with Hay singing "And no matter where we go/And no matter what we do/You hold on to me/And I'll hold on to you". An unfinished song or a promise? Either/or, it's a nice sentiment.
