Romanticism isn’t something that can be pulled off easily. It requires a subtlety and creativity, not something any Tom, Dick or Harry can pull off. If your name is Alex however, you might fare better. Such is the case for Alex Lashlie and his jangly five-piece Closet Straights. The band are ready to release their latest single Eight Days A Week, a track that digs deep to uncover plenty of nostalgia.
Melbourne quintet Closet Straights give us a hazy daydream of the past with their latest single Eight Days A Week.
Closet Straights came together in 2013, forming around Lashlie’s breezy compositions and introspective musings. Etta Curry, Adam Madric, Luc Dawson and Jeff May, each talented multi-instrumentalists in their own right, joined forces with Lashlie and have been on the steady up n’ up since. After gaining some notable attention from the likes of triple J for the double A side While You Were Sleeping / Eleven Hours, the band received the coveted Arts Victoria Grant in 2014. Locking themselves in Secret Location studios with producer John Guscott and engineer Nick Treweek. Their debut album is the result of those sessions, Eight Days A Week the second single to be released.
The broad appeal of Eight Days A Week lies in it’s easy going melody, spearheaded by Lashlie and Curry’s vocals. Lashlie draws you into the narrative with a familiar charm with the opening line “Carry with you a single red rose / Images of your childhood home / Sat by the window and waited by the rain / Radio plays a community station“. The imagery throughout the track could well be pulled from anyone’s past. Memories of VHS players, fuzzy television screens and the endless days of the Australian summer flood the senses. It’s all propped up by washed out guitar and busy bass in the back.
That’s where the track truly shines. There is the basic ideas of romance that punctuate the chorus (“I need you eight days a week“), a sentiment that proves to be quite sweet natured, but the love goes far beyond just that. Eight Days A Week demonstrates a love for a bygone era, whose memories stir in the corner of your mind. One that is populated by lazy days filled with daydreams, wanderlust and selfless gestures. As we reach the crescendo Lashlie’s presence becomes more bold giving the single a vitality that sticks with you long after the song peters out.
Come November Closet Straights will be launching Eight Days A Week with two shows in Sydney and Melbourne, so be sure to get down and check them out.
Friday November 6 – Bar Open, Melbourne VIC
Saturday November 14 – The Roxbury, Sydney NSW
