"Take from the rich", the new[1] album from Mark Boulle and the Haba Dudes, combines the best of what it means to be Australian, with the best of Mark and the band's unassuming personalities and musical style, with the best of gypsy and folk music, for a listening experience that is smooth, thoroughly enjoyable, and that very importantly bears repetition.

Australians might have no *unique* claim to a relaxed, laid back beach culture, but they certainly do have *a* claim to it, and its mood pervades the music of this album.  This music is to aggressive hostility what surfing is to a vicious knife fight: which is to say, completely and utterly removed.  This is the music of goodwill and harmony; it is relaxed and soothing, with its soothing quality reaching a peak in the song, "Story of a cake", where the lyrics promise gently, "It'll make you feel good"... and it does.

The music on this album is mostly but not exclusively acoustic: the core instruments are acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, drum-kit and violin, with some songs featuring keyboard, piano, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, flute, cello, harmonica and djembe.  There are fourteen tracks in total, and with an average track length of almost exactly three and a half minutes, they play for just long enough to convey their essence without becoming over-indulgent.

Mark's voice is down-to-earth, Aussie without being ocker, and completely unpretentious.  He plays the guitar with uncomplicated yet tasteful energy, based around continuous strumming patterns with some picking - no wild solos though; understatement is the key to this music.  Daren Williams on bass and Matthew Brown on drums and percussion provide solid, respectable and unobtrusive rhythmic backing, restrained from unnecessary (and inappropriate) complexity, in keeping with the simple, down-to-earth style of this music.  Elodie Mayberry plays the violin with wonderful feeling, subtlety and depth, and she adds a whole other dimension to this album.  Neil Macleod's flute and clarinet contributions are beautifully textured and resonant, and Steve Keyse on saxophone and keys injects with skill his soul and passion into the mix.

Many of the songs on this album were written overseas, including in London and France, and some of the lyrics and mood reflect this; the lyrics are both personal and evocative, full of imagery, and painting pictures and telling stories in a way in which you get to fill in the gaps in your own mind.  The themes that stand out are love, travel, substance addiction, the search for contentment, and the appreciation of the simple beauty of life.  Mark explores these themes through songwriting that is, like his voice, completely unpretentious and easily accessible.

The title track is an off-beat, energetic romp verging on ska; in some of the breaks the violin reels out an eccentric pattern, as if to say, "Here is the wild craziness of life, packaged in a song".  It is about being homeless in London - sleeping on couches; handing out your phone number and waiting on a call back - and seemingly it is this contemplation of the personal ramifications of homelessness that inspires an affirmation of the more abstract yet timeless ethos of Robin Hood: redistribution of wealth from the haves to the have-nots.  In a capitalistic world where the gap between the rich and the poor is extreme, this is a welcome message.

The other song based on the off-beat, but slower paced and less energetic than the title track, is "Understand you", a half-mournful, half-hopeful muse on the feelings associated with a woman who's "the best thing that's happened all along".  Feeling plays a big part not just in this song, but throughout the entire album: the music presents a coherent and almost delicate emotional landscape - delicate not in the sense of being prone to destruction, but of being intricately sensitive (or perhaps intricately "sensing").  In this context, the album is intensely *human*, giving us a glimpse of the possibilities of a rich inner and emotional life.

"Dirt bottom romance" has a similar mournful feel, with the poignancy of the music being matched by the message of the lyrics, which allude to the sorrow of "lost souls" with "broken hearts" who in their pain fight amongst themselves, but who still have hope of "mending" themselves through simple good living and appreciation of the beauty of life.  Mark seems to have been careful to not just in this song but also throughout the rest of the album make sure that potentially depressing observations are balanced with messages of hope, which is just one of the many reasons why this is such wholesome music to listen to.

One of the finest songs on the album is "Suga Mama": with a soulful, almost haunting melody, the lyrics give us a strong sense of Mark's authenticity, honesty and playfulness.  In this stereotype-reversal of a song, about the male singer's search for a female version of a sugar daddy - a suga mama - he describes a fantasy woman, one who is simultaneously understanding, undemanding and provident, eventually deciding that, "It sounds like a lot of effort and I'm kind of lazy / Might be best to just keep drifting along, drifting along, drifting with the music"... and the music does drift along, peacefully and melodiously, like being carried down a wide stream of unbroken water whilst napping blissfully in the bottom of a rowboat: a pleasurable daydream.

Many of the remainder of the tracks also offer this curiously and beguilingly bittersweet mixture of optimism and poignancy.  Two tracks that best exemplify this mixture are, "Paint that hole in your heart" - a very sweet acoustic song with melodic keyboards; a contemplation on togetherness, apartness and dreams - and "Under the way you move" - a melodic piece based around violin and piano; the delicious piano features what for want of a better description I will call "multiply-flammed" notes; its message is one of solidarity and peace.

"Greenside" is another one of the highlights of the album: a subtle meandering song featuring moaning violin and soulful sax, it is also the most political song of the album aside from the title track, gently pointing to problematic behaviours in the world without being pushy or self-righteous about it.

Similarly, "Bottledown nightmare" is a strength of this album - it is a simple acoustic song with violin and clarinet accompaniment, both instruments played beautifully and hauntingly.  It's an observational rather than a judgemental piece about the ramifications of addiction, and the music manages to capture a feeling that is a sort of acceptance of "such is the way that it is" - and yet the lyrics do not resign themselves to this acceptance, instead culminating in a positive imperative: "Loneliness attracts loneliness / Happiness attracts happiness / So put the bottle down, the bottle down".  

"Unhinged" is a pleasant-sounding acoustic song featuring violin and, like "Bottledown nightmare", dealing with substance abuse: "So you can drink all you want / And you can smoke all you need / But it won't work it won't help just to bring you to your knees".

"Too much of the blame" is an also pleasant-sounding yet slightly sad acoustic ditty without percussive backing: the lyrics speak of uncertainty, and whilst they are somewhat ambiguous (though expressive), it's possible that they refer to the tendency of those with conscience to assume the weight of the world's problems.

"The Nice lament" is cruisy and a little sad, and in it Mark seems to indicate that his music is dedicated to a woman (or to the women) who mean something to him; it picks up on the theme of travel, being written in Nice, France.  "Glastonbury" is another simple yet evocative acoustic song about travel and life on the road.  "Early morning", the only song I've not yet mentioned, is a slow acoustic song with pretty flute; it is a sad song about love.

I really tried to find something to dislike about this album, because which review is complete without at least one paragraph starting along the lines of, "One thing lacking from this album..."?  The worst that I could come up with, though, is the thoroughly unremarkable fact that I appreciate some songs more than others.

"Take from the rich" is an album for those who appreciate fine introspective acoustic-based music with depth of feeling.  Mark and the band have crafted fourteen inspirational songs that take the listener on a journey of heart, soul and conscience through a rich emotional and personal landscape, reminding us that in an imperfect world, the possibility to transcend our problems through appreciation is ever-present.

[1] Released August, 2010
                            Read more...