Hunters Home From the Hill (Juggernaut)
Positive review of the Juggernaut album.
Author: Ian Beer, The Age – Entertainment Guide.
Date: Friday 23 January 1998.
Original URL: N/A
After a career spanning more than 15 years, Hunters & Collectors are calling it quits and are determined, as most ageing rockers would have us believe of them, to burn out rather than fade away. And burn they do.
OK, they might neither wield the same force that erupted from Melbourne’s underground music scene in 1982 nor exhibit the originality of songs such as The Slab or Talking To A Stranger or the depth of passion they displayed on Human Frailty (one of the best albums released from these shores), but their swan song, Juggernaut, is a more than fitting finale.
From the opening track, they set the pace and don’t waiver in substance throughout the following 11 tracks. There are classic “Hunnas” songs – Human Kind and the poignant Those Days Are Gone.
Their trademark horns resurface on the rocky Higher Plane and a touch of early Waterboys haunts the suburban landscape on the track Titanic.
Commercial radio programmers get their fill with the lush Suit Your Style (co-written with Paul Kelly) and harmonies blend with strong choruses on the tracks Good Man Down and When You Fall. A rare, brief, falsetto vocal by Mark Seymour graces the track Not Fooling Around. The final song Long Way To The Water is left to close the curtain on this acclaimed Australian band. It’s haunting Seymour lyric echo into the distance – ” ‘Cos we can’t go back and we can’t stand still/So we’re leaving this world behind.”
This, along with nine other quality studio albums, live recordings and EP’s is a fine legacy.
4 stars
Thankyou to Stephen for typing out this article for us all to enjoy!
