Mick Thomas' Roving Commission - GoComeBack [CD]

The new album GoComeBack by beloved Melbourne act Mick Thomas' Roving Commission is a song cycle about the allure of home - "GoComeBack" is a pidgin Indonesian term for a return journey - penned by one of Australia's finest ever songsmiths (as three ARIAs with his former outfit Weddings Parties Anything will attest).Recorded in Auckland at Neil Finn's Roundhead Studio with ARIA award-winning producer Steven Schram (Crowded House, Paul Kelly, Sans Cisco etc), GoComeBack is the follow-up to 2023's Where Only Memory Can Find You which found it's way to #1 on the AIR Independent Albums chart. GoComeBack splits neatly into two halves:'Go' is side one - it takes you away, leaves you in a far off place. You catch a bus at dawn, by a submerged island you hear distant voices, you marvel at how mundane a supposedly exotic place can be, and how exotic a functional entity needs to be. You catch up with a band who went a-touring and never came back, you get your nails done by someone who wishes they were far away. 'ComeBack' is side two - it tries to see beauty in the everyday. A tram ride through a divided city, some wild birds in the airport food hall, a sculpture by the river and a small child in a Vietnamese restaurant. Mick sits on a pier in an obscure seaside town and wonders how he got there while some artists try their bohemian best to pretend their domicile is anywhere but a work-a-day Melbourne suburb. Lead single 'First Step In A Homeward Direction' acts as a mission statement for the collection, and upon release earlier this year (as part of a 7-track EP featuring covers of songs by Aussie artists) it debuted at #1 on the AIR Independent Singles chart.