Summerland

Summerland

Combining full-band instrumentation and beat-heavy production with a trio of blazing MCs in Urthboy, Ozi Batla and Berzerkatron, Sydney ensemble The Herd have proved they bring outsized swagger to everything they do. That’s never been more true than on their 2008 album Summerland, which kicks off with “2020”, a horn-laden party anthem about not learning from our mistakes, whether personal or political. Like the best Herd material, the track initially just sounds like a spirited revelry before those biting lyrics come into focus. The incendiary lead single “The King Is Dead”, which celebrates the exit of Prime Minister John Howard after eleven years, takes a similar tack—and its rallying cry of “Everything must change” and references to the dog-whistle incitement of racism make it feel way ahead of its time. But if the outspoken content feels at all heavy, it's lightened by the breezy touch of singer Jane Tyrrell and Unkle Ho's genre-bending production.

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