I’d like to start this review by saying that I love my home country of Australia and I love the bands that hail from this big, fine, brown land. But I can’t help but think that in the past couple of years the music has lost some of the excitement it once had. Many records just seem to old ideas re-hashed and come across as being incredibly safe but tend to make the scene stagnate. There are obviously exceptions to this and I am pleased to say that Dappled Cities Fly is one of them.

The Sydney four-piece has been on the scene for a few years now and they have released a couple of stand-alone singles, however this is their debut long player. With this in mind, the record sounds very impressive and shows a sense of maturity that most bands generally develop over a much longer period of time. Having said that, the best thing about Dappled Cities Fly is that they know how to have fun as well. If Augie March learnt how to have fun, I think that it would sound something very similar to Dappled Cities Fly.

Opener, Peach comes out to prove from the start that this record is going to be a little bit different with it’s oddly timed, all over the place verse which wraps up into a very neat chorus. Blame It On The Boys is slightly more straight to the point, but not entirely so. With a couple of different time signatures thrown in to keep things interesting. League of German Girls takes a little while to get going and when it eventually does it doesn’t prove to be too inspiring. Unlike the next track, Corpus Kinaesthesia, which is the type of pop song likely to induce odd bouts of swing dancing. With its jangly guitar and catchy as hell melody, it stands as one of the better Australian songs I’ve heard all year.

Make You Happy is another relatively forgettable track and with lyrics like “This bed is slippery, like a public toilet”, it could be said that Dappled Cities Fly don’t depend on being a lyrically brilliant band. But paired with the quirky style of music, they work effectively. As I Lay Dying is a sweeping ballad that sounds almost like an old British folk song and proves to be another of the album’s highlights. My Head’s Queen Ant is another well layered pop song and just try and stop yourself shrieking “HEY!” during the chorus. Cream is another off-kilter pop song and features a great, jagged lead guitar line to keep toes tapping. Die In Your Eyes is a little more straightforward and shows off the band’s harmonies nicely. The record draws to a close with Faces sounding somewhat like a Sleepy Jackson number and States keeping the tempo up until the end of the record.

This record is impressive both in terms of the music and the daring nature of the songwriting and performance. It’s sweet, crazy, mature, silly and certainly never predictable. If this is the future of Australian pop-rock, you won’ hear any complaints from me.