- Recently, the single Breakups Are Hard For Everybody came to my attention, which tickled certain points of personal cultural interest. At that point, it was just a curious bit of fun, akin to the black comedies of Lost Animal. So, I did some light research and found that this single belongs to the Melbourne band Ferla. I was like “Cool, I’ll rep that”. Onwards and upwards. On that same day, I was approached to write a review for this program, to which I suggested this Ferla band with those same first impressions. Those somewhat superficial impressions were met with an inquiring gaze from the producer and editor-in-chief as if to suggest that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.

And I didn’t.

You see, that single is attached to two separate bodies of work Guilt Pop and Stay Posi. That band, Ferla, is headed by the eclectic Giuliano Ferla, once of country band Twin Beasts. Which, superficially, double albums aren’t that unusual but most double albums usually don’t operate in stark contrast to each other.

Naturally, I listened to Guilt Pop first. It holds the aforementioned single: it was a safe place to start. Its four tracks are a charming combination of Kurt Vonnegut’s droll humanism and Jack Ladder’s off-kilter croon-pop. Dabbling in synthy kraut-rock bridges and warbled soft-rock, It’s an easy come, easy go affair; self-confident in the face of romance and a world of chaos.

Then I listened to Stay Posi. Stripped of humour and colour, Ferla gently introduced me to a tortured world of stadium rock. For real, it sounds like Joe Cocker and his demons fronting the slow-burning bombast of The Foo Fighters. Don’t take that the wrong way, though. It’s a compelling listen, each of the six tracks has a rousing, chest beating hook. And, as you immerse yourself, you begin to appreciate that Giuliano in Stay Posi plays a similar figure to Gareth Liddiard. With the flip of Guilt Pop’s easy-going humanism being that you are an equally contemptible human as the ones who disgust you. Then It dawned on me, the Guilt Pop / Stay Posi combo is the comedy and tragedy of Rock: Guilt Pop being a black comedy of irreverence and a so-it-goes roundtable of cool against the tragic Stay Posi and its acceptance in the face of human fallibility.

Rock has many faces and Ferla’s portrayal of the essential is actually quite enjoyable.

- NJR.