Dan Brodie
BIG HEARTED LOVIN' MAN – A RETROSPECTIVE (1999-2014)
(Fat Swine Records)
★★★★
In light of his 2013 face-off with mortality, you might think Brodie wrote these songs to pass time during cancer-busting treatments. The Melbourne maverick's reworked musings on life and his renegade ways now evoke that bigger picture. Back-catalogue gems feature (solo, Broken Arrows, Grieving Widows) plus covers of Sonic Youth's 100% and Spencer P. Jones' Missing. This lot was recorded live in one session with Brodie solo but for occasional guitar from brother Chris. Jesus Try and Save Me remains raw and exhilarating. The alt-country, indie rock continues between plaintive balladry and Tex-Mex flavours. Versions of Too Much Of You In My Head bookend the pilgrimage from unchallenged youthful swagger to fear and doubt, then onward to victorious redemption.