The Return of the Reel's Enigmatic Dave Mason
Peter A. Taylor | Taiwan | 06/16/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Not to be confused with the other, perhaps better known, Dave Mason, this Dave Mason is the former lead singer of the Australian late 1970's/ early -mid 1980's new wave/pop group The Reels. Better known for their left field approach to music -despite the bands origins from the bastion of conservatism in Australia, rural Australia and the city of Dubbo, and Mason's own father being a Liberal (Conservative Politician). The Reels were a quirky, entertaining, and peculiarly 'tongue and cheek' kind of band, rather unusual for Australia back then as 'head banging' Pub bands tended to take precedence over all other forms of modern music. This was later - with much relief I must add - corrected with the emergence of bands such as Not Drowning, Waving, and Icehouse, who added a bit more colour to the musical landscape. The Reels catalogue was rather limited with only a handful of albums being released over the period of their existence. The best of these perhaps being the excellent "Quasimodo's Dream", which featured all original tracks from band members, and the later "Beautiful", a sort of bitter tongue in cheek album of cover songs featuring an excellent rendition of Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's In Love (With You)". Even though the album seemed to be a bit of a dig at the record business establishment persay, it was still a beautifully conceived and realised - excuse the pun- record with Mason's excellent vocals and the band's playing being tight and professional as usual.
This album, an acoustic version of some of The Reels best known songs, is a more than competent showcase of not only The Reels songwriting ability but also the talent of Dave Mason as a singer with a wide vocal range. I always thought Mason had one of the best voices in Australian Pop/Rock - a view shared I think by contemporaries like David Bridie and to a degree Nick Cave, whom it is claimed felt some kind of affinity with Mason. Mason's opening track on this album "Quasimodo's Dream" - one of my favourite Reels songs- is delivered deliberately slow and with limited musical accompaniment,as is the rest of the album. This limited use of other instruments, and they tend to be acoustic ones like double bass, and organ, tends to highlight the effectiveness of Mason's voice. Whilst it is true that on some tracks Mason's voice is a bit weak and suspect - it quivers- he still does a great job on delivering the overall effect of each song. For me, "Kitchen Man", "My Family" and "Comedy", apart from the aforementioned opening track are the standouts. His re-interpretations of "This Guy's In Love.." and "Bad Moon Rising" - the latter a hit for The Reels in the mid 1980's- aren't as good as the original Reels interpretations but are still interesting.
It's good to finally hear a record from Mason again, his absence being sorely missed over the years. I only hope this enigmatic singer doesn't disappear again for years, as he's prone to do."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1