The Panics Cruel Guards by: Justin Pearsall Mon:24-Sep-07 Label: Dew Process Year: 2007 WB rating 70 out of 100

The Panics’ third LP Cruel Guards is confounding. In one sense it continues the band’s sterling work to date, in the other it seems a misguided and clumsy grasp at a mainstream success so far eluding the band. While holistically the record is still an enjoyable experience, in some ways it is a lost opportunity. Yes, it avoids the pitfalls of repeating itself, but its disturbing tendency towards bland commercialism largely rejects the mystery, grit and ambience at the heart of the group’s best work.

While this trend will most likely disappoint the band’s long term followers, the album is not without moments that justify The Panics cybertag of one of our countries, and possibly the world’s, most underrated bands. Opening with the powerful ‘Get Us Home’ their new found flourishes, evident in a soaring string section and a more produced sound, blend well with the more characteristic elements of heavy guitar interplay and Laffer’s story-telling nous. The end result is up there with The Panics’ best, thankfully tempering the added stings and production with a gritty undercurrent that builds to an aggressive and raw conclusion

Similarly ‘Ruins’ and ‘Creaks’, the second and third songs from Cruel Guards, manage to balance their anthem-like qualities without pervading the mid-tempo balladry that stifles the middle section of the record. Both tracks are products of a recent push for conciseness in Laffer’s songwriting (in length and lyrical directness) and his band’s open and restrained response certainly highlight maturity. However, even on these tracks, it is questionable as to whether these qualities add enough to make up for the mystery and unexpectedness sacrificed in The Panics’ sound.

While the value of Laffer’s directness may be questionable on these tracks, it is utterly exposed on the band’s first single ‘Don’t Fight It’. The slow-rock tempo, the dated organ and Laffer’s distinctively Fanning-like tone reek of FM radio ambitions that never before have inflicted this band. Combining these unfortunate events with an aged trumpet motif and throwaway, you-can-see-‘em- coming lyrics: “I have no other way, there is a price to pay/For what the man might say, but I was a million miles away”, it is hard to not question the intentions behind the track.

This poor man’s balladry could potentially be the band’s breakthrough point. And while only a bitter soul would deny The Panics this pleasure, the song in question is derivative, unrepresentative and flat. The fact that these are traits which a record buying public hungers for does little to justify a band as talented as this dipping their toes in the soulless commercial honey pot.

Unfortunately this FM-seducing sound reoccurs throughout Cruel Guards, broken in equal parts by slow burning numbers that limp rather than surge to conclusion (‘Cruel Guards’ and ‘Sundowner’) and occasional flashes of real brilliance such as ‘Something in the Garden’. This latter track is a timely reminder of why The Panics are special. Laffer weaves a tale of isolation that is perfectly cast for the viewless plains of Australia’s arid belt, the band’s guitar-heavy sound and eerie backing vocals redefining this vision to pixel-perfect clarity.

Songs such as ‘Something in the Garden’ and ‘Get us Home’ reaffirm that The Panics have the potential to deliver a truly classic album, something few can achieve. But Cruel Guards is not this record. It may be successful and The Panics may commercially crossover, something that Augie March recently proved possible, but one has to wonder whether the success of Cruel Guards would be a pyrrhic victory.