It’s been a long day and I don’t feel much like writing, so here’s another review from Cool Try.

This one is a bit more together than some of the other earlier Cool Try reviews, but I can’t help but feel that it needed a lot of work.

Oh well.

My colleague and I are working on growing Culture Eater so we can have more things covered whilst taking the pressure of continually putting out content off of ourselves. Hence our going onto Patreon.

We’re looking at what we can give to supporters as we don’t want to set up a one way relationship, so suggestions are welcome. Please consider supporting, or at least sharing the Patreon page with others.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Is it Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses or is it The Dark Horses?
Whilst it’s not the most important question in the world, I feel it needs to be answered in some capacity.
Anyway, with that being said, the group has released a new album.

From the slow, western imagery-invoking opener “Oh Lucky Me” to the driving closer of “Last Words”, Tunnel At The End Of The Light is kept fairly quiet and feels like a continuous song broken up into different parts.
At times the songs flirt with rock but it is fairly subtle and doesn’t overtake the fairly low-key sound of the album.
Penultimate track “Un Sound” and “Slide On By”, a song that feels far shorter than its length suggests, is as overt as it gets. However, they still sit well with the rest of the album as they don’t sound out of place.

Much of the playing is deliberate, simple, gentle, and minimalistic, creating a sparse sound.
Everyone sounds like they’re building on each other and no one journeys into excess, instead preferring to work as a group.
When a solo does appear, it feels more as though it is due to a collaborative effort rather than someone breaking away from the others.

Tex Perkins sounds surprisingly fragile, delicate, and at times quite mournful.
He sings with great purposes and intent that is underscored by occasional vocal harmonies.
The lyrics he uses sound as though he is thinking about subjects in a different manner than he would have twenty or more years ago and end up sounding well-developed, direct, and inviting.
He sounds much like a person who has been searching and has found at least some of the answers they seek.
This goes well with the rest of the music and gives the songs a feeling of vulnerability and comfort.

I’m unsure as to how it measures up to the rest of their catalogue, but I can say with confidence that Tunnel At The End Of The Light is an excellent album.
It carries the listener away and washes over them.
It’s easy to talk about the strength of the musicianship or vocals.
However, it doesn’t provide an entirely accurate description of the album.
The best way to sum up Tunnel… is by saying that it’s a band sounding like adults being adults without coming off as a lesser version of themselves.