AOTW #5: Rum Jungle's 'Recency Bias'

Feature Album of the Week #5

By Cooper Richards-Hancock

Beach Rock, Indie Rock, Surf Rock, JJJ-Core, all of these are labels that I’ve heard people throw around and try to make stick to certain bands (maybe even referencing the stars of this review) with or without success. An easy yet cheap way of discrediting music that discards it as easy listening music compared to the more underground, harsh, and cutting-edge sounds from around Australia. Where am I going with this? To be honest, I’m not sure. What I do know is that I like this new Rum Jungle album.

Rum Jungle (self-acclaimed “Steel City Saints” on their socials and spotify profile) is a band from Newcastle.

They’re known for making rock music, with a coastal flair.

Nothing wrong with that.

That would've been fine if they released 10 tracks about having a great time and kicking back.

Recency Bias, however, makes that effort to be the best demonstration possible of the band's eagerness to create new sonic experiences. Immediately, any notion of this being a casual indie album is disregarded with the opening synths of Hi Hello, accompanied by autotuned vocals that would sound at home on any RAAVE TAPES track. A very groovy, more so dancefloor-worthy track, it’s a great start.

Yet that’s not the only oddity on this LP.

Mad Man is the zaniest track I’ve heard from the band, with some very goofy psych vocals, some juicy guitars, blended to sound not too far away from a classic Oh Sees or King Gizzard track. Rocketship in the second half of Recency Bias pairs well with Mad Man, keeping the Psych-Rock sound, but swapping out the madness with the despair of heartbreak.

Where Rum Jungle skills are sharpest are the indie-rock(ish) belters. Frontman Ben’s vocals soar above the alt-radio hits Don’t Be A Stranger and Weather’s Better, two tracks that have been on heavy rotation on the JJJ’s over the past 12 months. Catchy hooks that I’ve found myself singing along to far too often since they were released as singles last year.

Okay, here’s a hot take.

Alright/ Notice might be one of the best song pairings on an album in recent Newcastle Music history. Just my opinion, though. Just like the overwhelming feeling of wanting to scream the chorus of Don’t Be A Stranger and Weather’s Better, but multiplied, I feel myself having withdrawals from the chorus of Alright during each verse, then bouncing back from my comedown once the next chorus comes around again. Many Australian bands have tried to replicate that sense of joy (I callously call this sound ‘Festival-Rock’), but fail to execute it as well as Rum Jungle does here.

Notice might be my new favourite song by the band. A track about the heartbreak of having a lover move on to someone else, and pleading with your conscious not to think about them and how they are. It contains a picked guitar line plus jangly guitars that would sound at home on any The Strokes album from the 2000s, and Ben crooning like a young Julian Casablancas, too. Far too often, the melody creeps into my mind during my everyday and I find myself singing out loud “I don’t caaaare/ I don’t caaare/ I don’t wanna notiiiice/ I don’t wanna notiiiice”.

Pass You By finishes this album off sensibly with a melancholic track about those moments in life that, uhhh, pass you by. Another solid belter of a chorus, with an ending that makes me look forward to the next time I’m listening to this album again.

Let’s just say it was a good time

Let’s just say it was a good time

Let’s just say it was a good time

You can purchase a vinyl copy of the album Here still (at time of publishing)

As well as stream it on Spotify and Apple Music