Review Summary: Modern Vintage never sounded so good.
It’s impossible to mention The Basics without also mentioning their most famous member, Wally De Backer, aka Gotye. However, long before he was writing smash hits and winning ARIA awards and Grammys, Wally was simply a drummer and singer in this little rock n roll revival band that would become known as “the hardest working band in Australia.” Bonding over a love of The Beatles and 50’s rock and roll, the trio’s debut is a string of callbacks to various touchstones of that bygone era. From the Beatles invoking title and cover art to the barren production and limited instrumentation, Get Back is through and through an oldies record.
The record has every opportunity to fall by the wayside as “just another group living in the past”. Yet where most revivalist bands fail, The Basics excel. From the gate, listeners are treated to lush harmonies that sound like the Four Freshman, upbeat instrumentation stolen from a lost Monkees or Beach Boys records and more vintage Lennon/McCartney styled hooks than they’d know what to do with. Then we get gold nuggets in the Elvis meets early Beatles swing of “Lovin’ Man” and the Muddy Waters blues of “Need another Man.” By looking back stylistically, The Basics push the importance of their songwriting to the forefront. As a result, none of the songs are overtaken by the style and instead stand on their own merits. Little things like the key change in the bridge of “Did I Ever stand a chance?” push the songs here from merely decent s to excellent.
With not one bum note or out of time drum strike, Get Back has no reason to be this good, or this fun. Yet the trio of Aussies end up doing the style of rock and roll oldies better than most American bands, and for that alone they must be lauded. Wally’s little band is more than a loving tribute to the past, it’s an almost necessary addition to the collections of any fan of these bygone styles.
