New Albums
THE MURLOCS
Bittersweet Demons
ATO
7/10
Infectious tunes with ’70s dressing on quintet’s fifth
As you might expect of a band featuring two members of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (singer/ keyboardist Ambrose Kenny-Smith and bassist Cook Craig), The Murlocs channel a torrent of ideas into their records and have little truck with genre demarcation. But for this smart, fun and emotionally resonant set they’ve settled on pop-rock with a ’70s bent, specifically late-era Bolan, John Lennon’s solo debut and ELO, while “Illuminate The Shade” suggests White Denim as kindred spirits. Other standouts are the harmonica-splashed “Skewiff” (very early Lennon) and stonking closer “Misinterpreted”, whose power-ballad build – and message – is as poignant as any you’ll hear this year.