Rock royalty Custard are back

INDIE rock royalty Custard has released their seventh album, The Common Touch and are heading on a tour which takes in Toowoomba.

The Sydney-via-Brisbane gents have clearly been busy since their 2015 release Come Back All Is Forgiven, for which fans waited 16 years.

Formed in Brisbane in 1990, Custard released a series of classic albums over the next decade, including Wisenheimer, We Have the Technology and Loverama.

The band developed a cult following, playing countless unforgettable shows at home and abroad, as well as producing a parade of memorable singles, including Apartment and Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us).

Featuring the classic line-up of frontman David McCormack, drummer Glenn Thompson, bass player Paul Medew and guitarist Matthew Strong, the new album was recorded in Leichhardt, Botany and Bexley, mixed in Marrickville and mastered in Ventura California.

The Common Touch, far from sounding like a hasty sequel, is a highly polished and expansive affair that explores diverse themes, and is replete with adventurous arrangements.

From the sweeping crescendo on the opening number In The Grand Scheme Of Things (None Of This Really Matters) to the familiar, fuzzed-up playfulness of 2000 Woman, it’s the most diverse release to date from a band noted for its sense of adventure.

Lyrically, the songs cover a similarly broad set of themes.

“I wrote all my songs for the album in November and December 2016 in a small room in Bexley with only one window. The window faced east,” McCormack said.

“There was not much to look at so lyrically I focused on the tiny little things (a photograph in a drawer/”“get well” cards) and the massive big things (the universe/existence/death).

“Come Back All Is Forgiven was the sound of us playing together in a small room, minimal overdubs. The new album has cello, pedal steel, piano and a variety of backing singers. Some of the tunes were cut up and stitched back together in ways I never thought possible.”

When mixing the album, drummer Glenn Thompson realised “…it was truly an evolutionary leap for the band, while still somehow managing to sound exactly the same as before.”

You can catch the band at The Spotted Cow on Sunday, October 22 with doors opening at 3pm. Tickets are available at http://ab.co/CustardTWB.