Josh Pyke - Chimney's Afire (Album)

Josh Pyke has cultivated quite a bit of local buzz, and I was surprised to find that Chimney's Afire is only his second album. The buzz is richly deserved – Pyke's voice is tender but down-to-earth, and his songs are excellently written and well-put-together. His skills have seen his songs appear in Triple J's Hottest 100 three years in a row, but they have unfortunately placed worse and worse each year. While I'm only familiar with a few of his songs, the ones that I do know are pretty cool. Middle Of The Hill is a standout from his back catalogue.

I generally listen to music while I do other things, and this goes for albums that I review, too. Some albums turn out to be excellent relaxation music, some serve as motivational soundtracks to Mario Kart Wii, and others overpower whatever I'm doing and force me to pay attention to them.

Josh Pyke's Chimney's Afire manages to occupy a completely different category. It falls into the area of 'music that requires your attention, rather than commands it'. And that, unfortunately, is a bad thing. It blends into ambient noise, it is pretty without being dynamic, and it fades into the background. The single The Lighthouse Song and the difference between it and Middle Of The Hill is the reason why Chimney's Afire isn't doing it for me; same style, less x-factor. Pyke's craft has failed to evolve, and while his catchy and dynamic Middle Of The Hill sounds similar to most of the rest of his work, it had something extra that made it a truly excellent song.

Ok, maybe I was being a bit harsh when I said it 'blends into ambient noise'. It is a nice album. It's not at the same level as something like, say, The Shins' Wincing The Night Away, but it's nice. There are moments of greatness, where the instruments and voice all come together in hooky goodness, but the songs are, on the whole, far too repetitive.

The tracks that feature a more interesting style, such as Our House Breathing, are much, much better than the rest and demonstrate how good Pyke can be. The others, which include singles The Lighthouse Song and Make You Happy, are too bland and mainstream radio-friendly. This is one for Pyke fans and casual listeners. If I can put it positively, I'd say that it's good music to fall asleep to; relaxing, calming, not particularly dynamic, but nice.

If you like a more relaxed style of music, something that doesn't necessarily draw you in but is, nevertheless, pretty nice to listen to, then Chimney's Afire might just be for you. Like I mentioned before, The Shins' Wincing The Night Away sets the bar for this style of music, and Chimney's Afire is nowhere near it. That doesn't mean it isn't a good, solid album though. It just means that I'd rather listen to something else.

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