Hope Downs, the debut full-length set by Melbourne five-piece Rolling Blackouts CF, was one of the highlights of 2018: hook-laden jangling indie pushed along irresistibly by motorik rhythms. However, the road to eighth on the bill at an obscure festival is paved with the efforts of bands whose second albums failed to live up to their early promise, and while it is excellent in places, Sideways to New Italy doesn’t quite rise to the same heights as its predecessor.
There’s no radical shift in direction: the interwoven lines of their three singer-guitarists still recall the pop magnificence of the Go-Betweens; the pulsing rhythms still give their songs a sense of urgency. But the success of Hope Downs – and the relentless touring that resulted – have clearly had an unsettling effect. While each of the opening trio of songs sparkles, most notably The Second of the First, delve further and there’s a growing sense of wistfulness on tracks such as Sunglasses at the Wedding, the outgoing exuberance that defined their earlier songs ebbing away to be replaced by a sense of dislocation and mild ennui. And – crucially – the hooks are slightly less sharp. The result is by no means a bad record, it just feels like a small step backwards.
