Scott and Charlene's Wedding: Any Port in a Storm – review

Born and bred in suburban Australia, Craig Dermody named his band after his mother's favourite television soap because it reminded him of being a kid. The songs he writes are as sentimental as that fact suggests; the surprise is that the dominant sound isn't twee bubblegum pop but a squally shower of impassioned, garrulous guitar over perfunctorily scuzzy bass and drums. His second album deals with his move to New York, and amid the warts-and-all lyrics are at least three references to what rock'n'roll can do for your life: it cushions the blow of a breakup (Spring St), reminds you that it's OK when ambitions aren't at first achieved (Wild Heart), and is there for you when money is tight and everything looks gloomy (Jackie Boy). A stolid lack of poetry combined with Dermody's flat intonation could make Any Port in a Storm hard-going, were it not for his evident, dogged attempt to be Jonathan Richman fronting the Stooges, and a stoic faith in the goodness of life and the value of human endeavour that brims with hope.