Cold Chisel: No Plans (CD)

Cold Chisel

No Plans

CD

CD (Compact Disc)

Herkömmliche CD, die mit allen CD-Playern und Computerlaufwerken, aber auch mit den meisten SACD- oder Multiplayern abspielbar ist.

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Label: Unknown, 2012
Bestellnummer: 3929856
Erscheinungstermin: 10.12.2013

It began in late 2009. Or rather, it resumed around then. And even for those of us who never truly believed it was the last wave back in 1998, it still came as a very welcome surprise. There was a one-off show in Sydney in Dec 2009 to 50, 000+ people. Another one-off in front of 25, 000 in rural NSW in late 2010. And then in mid 2011 the public were made privy to the bigger plan of Cold Chisel’s recent burst of activity when they announced what became the record-breaking Light The Nitro tour… By that point, we were used to Cold Chisel operating on its own timeline. 1998’s Last Wave Of Summer came fourteen years after their ‘final’ studio album Twentieth Century, and we’d wait yet another fourteen years to hold this album in our hands. When Cold Chisel secretly started recording new material in 2010, it marked the start of a new set of plans, plans which “had the floor drop out from underneath them,” as keyboard player Don Walker put it, when drummer Steve Prestwich passed away in January 2011. “A few months after Steve died we picked things up again and thought, ‘What do we do here?’ We thought we had to get something positive out of losing Steve, and the most positive thing we can do is spend more time together and enjoy playing music,” singer Jimmy Barnes says. “So we finished the record.”

Cold Chisel’s seventh studio album is fittingly titled No Plans. Barnes explains that the title was a recurring motif for the band: “When Cold Chisel start recording again in 2010, we just wanted to see what happened; we literally had no plans then. We wanted to see what worked. And it felt really good… Then in January last year Steve died and everything that had started to evolve was put on hold – again we had no plans. It seemed to be a recurring theme for the band over the last few years. At this point we just take things day-to-day. We’re loving doing what we’re doing, and we miss Steve, but we literally have no set plans for the future.”

Prestwich’s shadow looms large over No Plans. Not only on the three songs he plays on, but also on the songs that emerged since his passing. Whether sadly prescient or wistfully reflective, a lot of the songs on No Plans deal with death or aging. Walker compares the past to the present numerous times throughout the album without leaning on easy nostalgia: in All For You an old anger gives way to clear eyes and someone finds love; Our Old Flame sees a protaganist confronted with a past lover who makes him consider and compare the boy he was with the man he became; Summer Moon recalls “a hall above the beach when I was young.” Elsewhere “the horizon is wider than it used to be” while This Day sees the character dialling someone from “a situation long forgotten, better left alone.” Moss’ moody and explosive Too Late similarly hints at an unspecified tragedy, while accepting it’s “too late to start again.” Barnes’ soulful stomper Dead and Laid to Rest sees the vocalist ticking off the torments in his time.

“It’s a clear recognition that by our age there are many stages in life, and a lot of them are behind us,” Walker explains of the thread running through the album. “We don’t take a sentimental view of that.”

Missing a Girl is both the biggest departure and the most tender track on the album. A warm acoustic guitar pattern is coupled with Barnes’ beautifully-measured vocal, combining to highlight the inherent loss and loneliness within the track. “Right from the early days, Don was always the key writer,” explains bass player Phil Small, “and it gave the band a certain style, in particular with his lyrical content. That has continued on with this album as well. It’s very strong, you can feel it.”

“Don Walker’s risen to the challenge,” Ian Moss adds. “He’s the one that came up with the bulk of the songs and there’s not one dud on there. It’s amazing.”

Someone else that has risen to the challenge is drummer Charley Drayton, who had the biggest of shoes to fill. “Charley’s put a different slant on things,” says Phil Small. “He’s put his own stamp on it. Steve’s a lot louder; he was a rim-shotter. Charley plays with a cool jazz backbeat.”

If the album title offers a succinct statement of intent (or lack thereof), then surely Walker’s This Day (which crashes into play with all the majesty of All The Young Dudes) offers an alternative, but not necessarily counter, viewpoint: “I’m gonna find a way to make this day the best one so far.”

“We realised with the death of Steve we weren’t here for a long time, we’re here for a good time and we should all enjoy each other’s company while we can,” Barnes reflects.

The Horizon, with its acceptance of the changing, evolving nature of life, acts as such a perfect bookend – the filmic imagery of “watching the western sky as the sun goes down” seems so apt an ending that it comes as a shock to suddenly hear Steve Prestwich enter, firstly with the unmistakable thud of his drums, then with his powerful, soulful voice. If I Got Things To Do comes as a surprise to the listener, then imagine the shock the band felt upon discovering a vocal track they weren’t previously aware was even recorded.

“The album was being mixed by Kevin Shirley in Los Angeles and at the end of play each day he was sending us over his mixes for our assessment, which is normally a reasonably dry process,” Walker explains. “In the middle of it all, in the middle of the night, in comes a Steve vocal that we didn’t know existed.”

Prestwich’s final song tragically hints at unfinished business in its title, but the song itself offers more than that: it speaks of life getting in the way of love, of missing the one you cherish, of prioritising the wrong things. In the wake of his passing, Steve’s lyrics serve as a poignant reminder that life is short. It’s a cautionary tale that plans can sometimes lead you away from where you wish to be.

As for what comes next for Cold Chisel? Well, the album title certainly acts as a disincentive to ask. Walker nonetheless hints at future writing sessions for another record, while coyly mentioning that there are leftover songs. “Some of them completed,” he adds. “The session we did with Steve at the beginning of 2010, out of which came All For You and Missing A Girl, there are songs recorded then with Steve on, and there’s a few things we did last year with Charley playing that didn’t make it to the album also. Some of those things will either see the light of day if they are ready, or we’ll do some more work on them in the future.”

Don’t take this as gospel, though. As we have learnt, plans change, plans fall apart and Cold Chisel were never ones to follow an obvious trajectory. “Cold Chisel broke up in 1983. There was no plan to ever do any album ever,” Walker states. “The Last Wave Of Summer in 1998 was a once-off and then this has come along. It’s not a matter of ‘Why the gap [between albums]?’ I’m surprised the gap wasn’t longer.”

(coldchisel. com)