Danny McDonald - Summer City
(Zip)
Australian power pop legend, Danny McDonald (P76, Jericho, Oscarlima, Stone Age Hearts) has one of those high-pitched girlie voices you either love or hate, but it's perfectly suited to the salty-breezed pop presentations on his debut solo album, Summer City. Imagine Todd Rundgren fronting any number of West Coast power pop bands (The Knack, The Beat, 20/20, etc.) and you've got the idea. Like Tommy Keene and Roy Sundholm before him, McDonald's affable demeanor and light-hearted delivery lift these sticky-sweet, toe-tapping tunes a couple of notches above the mundane flotsam and jetsam littering cutout bins the world over.
The gentle, acoustic "Let's Get Drunk To You and Me" is a perfect happy hour tune. From the magnificent booklet art design of sandy beaches, bluer-than-blue skies, and summer-rental shacks (McDonald says, "the graphic artist employed images which I felt summed up the imagery I was trying to capture...1970s Australian surf culture and the 'down to earth,' simple nature of the record"), to the rocking, spirit-lifting, kick-off-your-sandals-and-stick-your-toes-in-the-ocean tunes with titles like "Soaking Up The Sunshine," "At The Seaside," "Mermaid Beach" (a bitchin' surf instro), and "In The Comfort of A Summer's Night," Summer City may be the most evocative album about the summer since Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard.
The soundtrack of the summer of 2003 has arrived.
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