Rip It Up Magazine

Sunday, 18 October 2009 18:19

Bad Luck/King of Palm Island' continues to delight the critics - this time in Adelaide, where Rip It Up Magazine declared it Single of the Week.

Ben Folds and Anberlin can cram it – when it comes to lyrics name-checking our town, nothing beats The Holy Sea’s evocative line ‘The body of my lover stretches out just like the hills of Adelaide’ on Bad Luck. Inspired by Patrick White, colonial history and race relations, The Holy Sea’s forthcoming album Ghosts Of The Horizon sounds so devastatingly literate it’ll probably be sold with an ISBN. Like The Drones and Paul Kelly inventing folk punk in an 1850s Victorian goldfields tavern, it’s the sort of music Augie March could make if Glenn Richards wasn’t so goddamned earnest. Having already earned Saint Nick Cave’s patronage, there’s a subliminal nod to ol’ Nick in the impending doom of bonus track Jezebel, which sounds like a prelude to a murder ballad. All this and a band member who’s a ringer for the hairy weirdo from The Hangover too!