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Live Review: Love, despair and synth - Jack Ladder is back with 'Susan'

18 May 2017 | 7:10 am | Lloyd Crackett

If you are tired of all the low quality nostalgia plaguing the world, look no further - Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders are back with 'Susan'

The current cultural climate is peak nostalgia; we’ve looked back to look forward, we’ve remade, rebooted, parodied and parroted genre after genre, across all forms of art in an attempt to honour and appreciate them. Often, these attempts can seem like parodies of themselves, glib homages to a time gone by but the attempts themselves. It’s in this time, post-Stranger Things and pre-Akira reboot that really, we need an authentic appreciation of a bygone era. We need the return of JACK LADDER AND THE DREAMLANDERS. 

After a sombre and mysterious few years of silence – well, touring as the opening act of many notable musicians such as such as Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten and Florence Welch of Florence And The MachineJack Ladder is back with his unique blend of lyricism, despair and synth. ‘Susan’ is a macabre tale of lovers, drug use (pointless mixing), dancing and offers to join the other in the eternal afterlife. As always, it’s the skill in which Jack Ladder’s music is put together that raises it up. It’s not just nostalgic or melancholic, it doesn’t rely on either as a gimmick to get passable music to a bigger audience. Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders have a great respect for the 80s, they have a great respect for lyricism and they sure as hell, have respect for a good groove. ‘Susan’ is a successful return track, in which Jack Ladder’s rich baritone carries over the synth work, the drums are slow yet keep you moving if only gloomily, as the sad story of Susan and Richard plays out - in the only way it could in a Jack Ladder song. 

Jack Ladder is fresh from his first set of solo European/UK tour dates after supporting WEYES BLOOD on tour. ‘Susan’ also heralds Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders' first Sydney and Melbourne shows in sometime. Hopefully, these shows and new single are a sign of another album from the Australian kings of nostalgia.

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July 28 at Oxford Art Factory in Sydney

August 4 at Howler in Melbourne

Special guest at both shows is Emma Russack

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