Kelt Tomorrow Is Another Day by: Tom Hall Thu:25-Jan-07 Label: Pob Boomerang Year: 2007 WB rating 45 out of 100

Is there any musician more hobbled by preconceptions than “The Singer/Songwriter”?

One person, an acoustic guitar, and the looming promise of being personally addressed in hushed, intense tones, by a real-life member of the lost tribe of wandering, nomadic wordsmiths known as “The Singer/Songwriters”. Such are the inflated, self-grown expectations with which we approach artists who trade in this form.  Often we envisage people of such intensity and mystique that they must surely occupy the darkest caverns of the world. Dimly lit rooms, thickly fragranced with the deliciously fertile scent of a distant past, brought near – just for us.

Expectations such as these have a complicated past and present. Far from the cast-iron moulds of Guthrie, Dylan and Young, the commodification of integrity continually proves itself to be a particularly sticky point of debate. Brisbane singer/songwriter Kelt chooses to dwell in a dangerous place and time, and his debut LP Tomorrow is Another Day embodies this very problem in an intriguing way.

The opening track ‘Wake Myself Up’ drenches the listener in a downpour of pensive imagery. All “dreams” and “dreaming”, “sleep” and “sleeping”, lullabies and bed sheets and a slowly bowed cello. As an opening track such vague subject matter proves to be fairly misleading. Rather than introducing what could very easily prove to be an album of wistful tedium, what follows is a deceptive grower of an album, at times playful, others beautiful, and others still, bordering on the infuriatingly tiresome.

The standout track on the album is the elegantly paced magnetism of ‘Help Wanted’. Cheesy metaphors and mundane wordplay aside, this is a strikingly dynamic track which showcases not only Kelt’s good ear for melody, but also the outstanding group of musicians he has chosen to surround himself with. The instrumentation and development of the song emphasises the indispensable importance of economy and space within a composition and hints at Kelt’s ability to twist a simple acoustic ballad, leading it more towards something which bears the mark of truly great music. While Kelt’s searching, high-register quaver on this track will no doubt draw many Chris Martin comparisons, such derivative associations seem unfair.

Elsewhere on the album, it is the bare faced, full throated intimacy which stands out. On ‘When We Lose Our Way’ we find Kelt indulging in a liberal use of vocal harmonies and triumphant rhythm-play which twirls effortlessly through itself, fully capturing both subject matter and musicianship in one tightly wound case. Similarly, moments on ‘Unrequited’ ebb and flow in a surge of unrefined ambivalence. These little gems are appealing enough, yet finally and unfortunately are far too obvious. As the build up swells and peaks, the noise is abruptly stripped away to leave just guitar and vocal so Kelt can deliver his closing lines: “So I sit here alone and in my hand is a brew/ It’s cold and it’s hard and I’d much rather hold onto you”.

Rather than challenge the listener Kelt appears content to trade in simplicity and honesty, verging at times on a playful laziness which threatens to bring the entire structure of the songs – and thus the album – crashing down.  Nowhere is this better exemplified than in ‘Corner Store’, where Kelt likens his sweetheart to his local corner store. The girl in question is apparently “nice to have around”, so much so that “I get on my bike/…I’d pedal all day for a bag of her smiles.” And just when it seems impossible to believe that one could be content with such a clumsy, empty metaphor, there’s the closer: “Why be sad by myself? / When I’d be happy on her shelf / I don’t want no Winfield Blue / Just a packet of you.” Wow.  It is most unfortunate that Kelt’s choice of writing technique and subject matter are as poor as his choice of cigarette brand. Such asinine lines as these test one’s willingness to endure his all-too frequent divulgences in mediocrity.

Continuing in this weak tradition are the thinly veiled obscenities of ‘Van Diemen’s Land’, a fantastically ridiculous musing on the map of said state (apparently risqué enough to be the only lyrics from the album not posted on kelt.com.au). But we know what we’ve heard, and, while such candid moments surprisingly serve to endear the album even more to the listener, overall it is a frustrating exercise in banality. Rather than fleshing out themes of abandonment (‘Planes Eye View’), mournful longing (‘Incomplete’) and dreamy melancholy (‘Life Is Not a Race’), Kelt again and again succumbs to ill-conceived, poorly executed attempts at clever puns and wordplay, which succeed merely in objectifying well known emotional templates.

Referring to his own self-awakening, Kelt describes his sense of abandonment in terms of dying “like pot plants on your shelf”, lamenting that “You left me high and dry / Now Radiohead makes me cry” (‘Incomplete’). This couplet, as a general example of the frustrations within Tomorrow Is Another Day, relies entirely on rehashed, third-hand notions of emotive abandonment, a trend which is repeated again and again through the majority of the album. While Kelt does not pretend to do anything other than wear his honesty of expression on his sleeve, one questions the intelligence of such expression when the substance of his words are limited to derivative rhymes: “Running is faster than walking / Unless you’re running the wrong way. / Saying nothing is better than talking / When you’ve got bad words to say” (‘Life Is Not A Race’).

Ultimately, Tomorrow Is Another Day is a test of tolerance; an experience that can frustrate to the extent we feel tempted to give up on the entire exercise. While there are significant shortcomings on Tomorrow Is Another Day, it is a well-paced, well-produced presentation of songs which hum with the honesty of an individual comfortable enough to say what comes naturally to him. In an age of Pete Murrays, Alex Lloyds and other attempts at commodifying integrity, to some this may seem enough.