Add Adrian Rosenfeldt (http://www.adrianrosenfeldt.com) to the growing list of New Wave revivalists worldwide. The difference is, though, Rosenfeldt seems to have really come from that late '70s-early '80s pub-rock period, as if he had taken a time machine and rocketed to the future, completely missing all of the trends in between. Which, for nostalgic souls such as myself, is actually a positive thing.
Rosenfeldt's voice is dry, quirky, and detached at times; clearly the influence is that of Lou Reed but there are traces of Tom Verlaine of Television, fellow Australians the Go-Betweens, and even the Bolshoi's Trevor Tanner. (The latter is most likely due to both of them having been listening frequently to Reed.) He's not trying to sound like a fresh-faced post-punk kid; I sincerely doubt he's that young, anyway. Some of the tracks here, such as "Would You Push It?" and "Garden of Love," could've been released on Stiff Records back in the day. (In an alternate universe, they might've.) "Would You Push It?" has the urgent hand-clap percussion of Elvis Costello's immortal "Pump It Up" while "Garden of Love" has an addictive keyboard hook worthy of the best synth-pop from the '80s.
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My favourite is "Dirty Daze," a track about the Lolita Complex with warm Beach Boys harmonies and a deep vocal delivery that is reminiscent of Lloyd Cole (who I'm sure also worshipped Reed.) All in all, this is a fun rock record that fans of Reed, Costello, and Graham Parker would savor. Not much here in terms of lyrical bite, but Rosenfeldt keeps us entertained and happy.
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