James Reyne

When beloved Oz rockers Australian Crawl first appeared on that country's national pop/rock show Countdown in 1979, performing "Beautiful People," they were fronted by a singer with movie-star good looks and plaster casts on both arms. The singer was a post-car accident James Reyne, a frontman who was able to capture the mass audience's attention from the very first -- plaster casts or no. Australian Crawl were a band that everyone could get into, with their easy demeanor and distinctive, yet wide-ranging pop/rock. This collection grabs ten of the band's best songs, and nine more from Reyne's successful solo career in one tight, highly entertaining package. "Beautiful People" was a mighty start to Reyne's career as he -- from a well-to-do family himself -- spilled the beans on the jet set ("They've got a Kerouac condition/Got a cocaine cough" and "The garden's full of furniture/The house is full of plants"). It was a glossy, hooky rocker full of the surf-and-sun vitality that Reyne and his cohorts radiated, and it went to Number 22 on the national chart. From there, there was no looking back. The band's first album (from which "Beautiful People" was lifted), the fully loaded The Boys Light Up, spawned a series of hits including the reggae-slanted title track, the forlorn love song "Downhearted," and another shot at the rich and aimless, the classic Elton John-esque "Hoochie Gucci Fiorucci Mama" -- all of which appear on Reckless. Also here are the band's Errol Flynn tribute "Errol" ("I would give anything/Just to be like him"), the frantic "Things Don't Seem," and the haunting, echoing "Reckless." On the solo side of the ledger are the balls-to-the-wall rocker "Fall of Rome" (a national Number Three hit that's a near cousin to Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell"), a cover of the Dingoes' "Way Out West" -- a duet featuring Reyne and Australian country star James Blundell which went to Number Two nationally, and other Top Ten hits "Hammerhead," "Motor's Too Fast," and "Slave." James Reyne was the quintessential bronzed Aussie -- something of a welcome anomaly in the gritty, hammer-and-tongs world of Australian pub-and-club rock. And while he didn't possess a mighty voice, it was certainly distinctive and well-exploited with his use of choppy phrasings, vibrato touches, and often-ambiguous enunciation (e.g. in "Beautiful People") he made the phrase "Robert Palmer t-shirt" sound uncannily like "rubber politician". In short, James Reyne was a talented guy who parlayed what he had into a good time for one and all, and earned his place in Aussie rock lore in the process. Reckless is the proof. As for those plaster casts, Reyne had been hit by a car, not driving one; a tale he sings about in the wryly humorous Crawl song "Indisposed" (Track Five). ~ Adrian Zupp, Rovi