***”That's OLD MATE on the cover. He got all dressed up for the occasion because this is Old Mate's second release, a self-titled 7” on Major Crimes Records. With arresting artwork and a lush haze of two tracks of low-down slow-dance pop songs, its difficult to imagine something more altered from what was at first the MC styled solo project of PAT TELFER and then the raucous big band on their first cassette. The lead track is ‘I Think Of You’, a rumbling double-tracked baritone is the call, while an airy echo lingers throughout in response. These fragmented rhyming couplets are accompanied by simple yet achingly melodic flourishes of saxophone, keyboard and guitar. Though unadorned, as a whole the content ascends into a truly evocative ballad, lamenting in loss but steadfast in its affection. Its crowning moment is the coda of two voices repeating the same tenderly delivered hook: “I think of you. I think of you”. While the A-side is heavy on sentiment and sincerity, ‘Thrownin’ Down’ is charged with bravado that masks the sense of hanging-by-a-thread desperation. “I’ve got work to do baby, don’t get me down/I’ve got a smile, you’ve got a frown” is demonstrative poetic candour. This is Leonard Cohen hurling his book of longing at the wall and sitting on an unmade bed to howl. Again, the band provides a remarkable delivery of devastation pop in conjuring an empty night, a deserted room and an unsettling exit. Finishing with the cold whistle of a keyboard and a sax solo that splinters into irretrievably broken pieces.” Includes a download. Australian import.