Flashback CD Review #56 - Mick Harvey - One Man's Treasure

This review was originally written for the Rock Is Life.com website in 2005.

Mick Harvey
One Man's Treasure
Mute Records - 2005
http://www.mickharvey.com

What's The 4-1-1?

The first true solo album from the co-founder of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds finds Mick Harvey releasing songs that he has a deep personal, passionate connection with.

Genre

Rock / Alternative Rock / Singer-Songwriter

The Good

I found that I really enjoyed listening to the vocals on this CD. It stumped me for a while as to why, but I figured it out finally when I realized that Mick Harvey sounds a good deal like one of my favorite artists, Warren Zevon. It's not a direct homage or anything, just a similar feel and vocal delivery. There's even a bit of the humorous inflection to his vocals particularly on the song "Hank Williams Said It Best."

The mixture of song styles was excellent. The opening track "First St. Blues" is dominated by a piano "riff" and has a very authoritative vocal track while "Planetarium" features a sweet guitar line. Meanwhile the song "Demon Alcohol" has a very dark and moody tone with a hushed vocal take. There's also a nice use of a string section on a few tracks including "Come Into My Sleep".

The standout song on the album for me, besides "Hank Williams Said It Best" is the mid tempo number "Man Without A Home".

The Bad

A couple of songs were problematic here.

The song "Come On Spring" is an up tempo track with just the right rhythm, but the chorus to the song is incredibly weak. "Will You Surrender?" closes out the album but I found the song to be a rather soft way to go out. The song "Bethelridge" has a dramatic vocal delivery but the song left me cold.

The Verdict

One Man's Treasure is a very good showcase for Mick Harvey as he steps out fully with his own solo material. There's a good helping of quality songs here and his long time fans from his past career should find this a worthy addition to their music collections.

I'm not sure how much of a new audience that this will bring in, but it is a pretty rock solid CD.

Did You Know?

Harvey co-founded a group called The Birthday Party and another group called Crime and the City Solution which released 6 albums. He's also composed music for films such as Chopper and Australian Rules.

Rating: 3 out of 5