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Nut huggers and burning rubber: Alex Elbery and The Strangers get nostalgic on Kangaroo

Alex Elbery and The Strangers create a crafty fusion of alternative folk and rock, and are as musically sound as their Aussie roots, if not even more.

Drawing from stories of life growing up in the hills of Western Australia with odes to archetypal Australian culture, this Melbourne-based masterpiece dish up a unique mix of genres evocative of life growing up in this beautiful, red-dirt land.

Their new single, Kangaroo, doesn’t fall short of illustration, with Elbery’s raw, honest lyrics painting a picture of life in Australia without holding back on the darker details.

From tales of seven-day long outback journeys free from civilisation, to getting pissed purely because there’s nothing else to do, Kangaroo chews up our Aussie culture and spits it out into a stirring narrative that doesn’t beat around the bush.

Alex Elbery

Blending fact and fiction, Alex Elbery sought inspiration for Kangaroo from the 1971 Australian horror film, Wake in Fright, which is set in a remote outback mining town of Australia.

Accompanying the band’s sophomore single is a video clip that takes you through the dark, infinite roads of Australia revealing a kangaroo immersed in the glow of car headlights. The video then progresses with a series of retro footage of drag races, mullets, beer guts and wife-beaters, and old school cars smoking up the joint.

From climbing walls to cops doing mainies, Kangaroo gives viewers an insight to Australian life from another time, in contrast with our current, social media-consumed society.

With drag racing being portrayed as the most popular form of entertainment in Kangaroo, there’s no question that this form of fun (although extremely dangerous) was probably better for our mental health than iPhones.

With a nod to nut huggers and burning rubber, Alex Elbery and The Strangers nail a poignant reflection on a bygone pastime, with the track itself triggering a more reflective, emotional reaction to the visuals displayed throughout the video.

Keep an eye out from more music from Alex Elbery and The Strangers in the near future.

Check out a teaser for their debut record, Start Small, Get Smaller below.