Leanne Kingwell

Leanne Kingwell
'New Tattoo'
Krill Records

When an album is touted as 'one of the most exciting rock albums
released in the last decade', a statement pinned to countless albums and applied to every conceivable genre, one is bound to think that that it is over-enthusiastic self-promotion.

'New Tattoo' is certainly not one of the most exciting rock albums of the last decade. I could easily put my hand in a box under my desk and pull out 10 random Australian albums that have produced far more exciting contributions to the rock music genre in the past decade, although admittedly few, if any, have the raunchy appeal that Kingwell brings to both the metaphorical musical and lyrical tables, all be the lyrical setting centred around bashing seemingly endless ex-boyfriends around the head.

To some extent it appears that 'New Tattoo' is a cathartic vehicle for Kingwell's own demons, in which she goes through a cleansing process by letting loose with a sinewy guitar canon upon anyone who might have pissed her off and a vocal salvo of fiery language that might even make the hookers at Kings Cross blush.

Kingwell's oft droll and predictable licentious (and profanity riddled) celebration of breakups is decorated with rough and ready emotional weight and the break neck sonic power of 'New Tattoo' puts the album into the ' interesting' category, rather than 'exciting', and will almost certainly appeal to anyone who has a love of deceptively exquisite rock guitar arrangements, or someone looking for a less embarrassing alternative to admitting that they have a collection of teen rock chick albums hidden away in their collection. Although Kingwell sidesteps the charming naivety of her peers (amongst others, Mia Dyson), she certainly holds her own when it comes to her nifty guitar work.

Whilst much of the album does reach the hard rock heights that Kingwell aspires to, it is a shame that 'New Tattoo' sometimes sounds a little affected, trying too hard to sound hard rock rather than bubble gum rock, by way of a sleazy, dirty 'fuck you' attitude and vocal two-fingered gestures, the general style perhaps reminiscent of Cath Synnerdahl (X and Tongues).

Rather confusingly 'New Tattoo' appears to have been re-released in 2006, under the guise of 'Show Ya What', available on CDBaby, with an almost identical track listing, with the addition of a couple of new tunes (and a radio edit of 'Holding Your Gun')


Related links:
Leanne Kingwell web site