Record Details
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Record ID
2141
Artist
Mark Gillespie
Title
Sweet Nothing
Field / Genre
Rock
Year Recorded
1981
Label
Aztec Music
Pressing
Aus
Rating
****
Discs
1
Media
CD
Date Bought
20 Aug 2011
Cost
¤23.00
Cover Name
—
Review
<p>They don't come much more eccentric than Mark Gillespie. Best known for 1980 debut album Only Human, the one-time Melbourne singer-songwriter refused to play the music industry game. Instead of touring behind that record or giving interviews, he travelled through Asia. His genre-hopping songs, meanwhile, indulge in weird arrangements and dark, philosophical lyrics. Before turning to music, Gillespie had written short stories, co-founded the Aussie-centric Outback Press, and done a six-year architecture degree at Melbourne Uni. Today he lives in Bangladesh, where he works at an orphanage, writes songs in the jungle, and has penned a text-message novella called No Hope. Not your average troubadour, then.</p><p>Last year Aztec reissued Only Human as a two-disc package with comprehensive liner notes and Gillespie's offbeat commentary. Now comes the second entry in his four-album career. Although it doesn't quite have the anything-is-possible vibe of the first, Sweet Nothing (1981) keeps several of its players and again enlists producer John Sayers (Radio Birdman, John Williamson). Daddy Cool's Ross Hannaford, who was on board for Only Human, plays guitar on two songs, and there are backing singers, synths, and saxophone. Like Only Human, this is a fascinating combination of '70s singer-songwriter-isms and the now-cheesy production values of the early '80s.</p><p>But it's much more than that, too. While seeming innocuous enough, the title sums up the startling existential quandary of Gillespie's songs. Uplifting music is often paired with bleak themes as he rattles off the kind of lines you wouldn't expect to hear from a singer-songwriter even today. On the self-reflexive opener 'Nothing Special', Gillespie describes America's iconic Midnight Special train line as something that will deliver him to the promised land. Backing singers come in just after he sings, "I think I hear the gospel band", but by the time he announces, "There's nothin' special in this world", his optimism has drained away and he seems to be staring head-on into oblivion. The train becomes downright menacing, and Gillespie watches it roar past him with fear and hopelessness in his gut.</p><p>And that's all in the first track. Later, 'Swing Tonight' proves to be a burbling funk-pop number about suicide ("We're all gonna swing tonight") and 'Miss Right' darkly intones "I know you're gonna be Miss Wrong." 'Night & Day' sees society robbing one's identity ("They might give you all a number/You don't have a say"), while 'Rivers of Blood' is as unsparing in its imagery as you'd expect from that title.<p><p>Amid all that pessimism, though, the music remains jaunty, twanging, and spiked with playful bass lines and harmonies. Despite warnings about seeking meaning in love and money, 'Traveller in the Night' strongly recalls the skeletal funk and underdog yearning of the Stones classic 'Beast of Burden'. Other tracks summon Cat Stevens, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and 'Wild Night'-era Van Morrison, while 'Pile-Up' seems to lift a page from the art-school adventures of Talking Heads.<p><p>This re-mastered edition includes much briefer liner notes than Only Human and only two b-sides as bonus tracks: the barroom gospel of 'Passing' and the layered 'Looking for You'. That means it's still best to start with Only Human. It's also worth noting that three of these songs had rawer incarnations in 1978's demo batch The Black Tape, which was included with the Only Human reissue: a meditative eight-minute version of 'Nothing Special', a bluesier 'Stormy Night' with prominent female vocals, and a gospel-edged version of 'Miss Right' called 'Another Ms. Wrong'.<p><p>"While seeming innocuous enough, the title sums up the startling existential quandary of Gillespie's songs."<p><p>At the time of its release, Sweet Nothing peaked in the top 10 on the Melbourne charts and in the top 30 nationally. And aversion to self-promotion aside, Gillespie appeared on Countdown and supported the likes of Rodriguez, Tom Waits, and Jackson Browne in his day. But he didn't want to be a star, as proven by his stubborn attitude, as well as his current line of work. Knowing how things turned out for him only enhances Sweet Nothing's recurrent theme of struggling to find one's place in an unforgiving life. On the near-psychedelic 'Hand to Hand', Gillespie doesn't mince words: "But if there was some reason to live/Then there would be something to understand."<p><p>He's since found a reason to live, but he's left behind some bold artefacts from his days of peering into the void. At his best, Gillespie was an unflinching poet of lost souls, mixing doubtful messages of hope with resounding portraits of despair.<p><p><strong>—Doug Wallen</strong></p>