HEADLAND

What Rough Beast AGITATED

6/10

Intriguing odds and ends from Australian instrumentalists

It may be their first to feature vocals, but the fourth Headland album is no radical sonic departure. Joel Silbersher’s voice ebbs and flows, adding to without overpowering the instruments that the collective have at their disposal: cello, Mellotron, pedal steel. Roughly organised around guitarist and “old surfer” Murray Paterson, Headland record in fits and starts and it shows: the oddities here include a spacious acoustic cover of Mötorhead’s “Deaf Forever” and late-night 2007 guitarpiano jam “Darlin’ Be Home Soon”. But an overarching theme of loss and longing, and the sheer beauty of arrangements like “I Will Fix This” and “Reverse Painting”, hold the whole thing together.