Four Hours Sleep, Love Specifics

by dave heaton

Love Specifics is a curated collaborative album from Australian musicians – that is, Bill MacDonald produced the album, wrote or co-wrote all the songs, and played much of the music (with two others), but also got an assortment of guests to play instruments here or there, and five vocalists to sing lead. The mood is soft-pop with a slight international/cosmopolitan bent, with touches of jazz, of electro-pop, of blues-based rock. There's some moody instrumentals between the sung songs, mostly love songs of some stripe. It's all pleasant enough, with some nice melodies and stylistic variations. But in the middle is one song I find absolutely riveting: a relaxed acoustic, country "Goodbye Song" about love's ups and downs, sung by Angie Hart (Frente), in a beguiling yet understated way. It's a gorgeous song, yet simply so, and stops me dead in my tracks each time, making time stand still.

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