Melbourne, Florida finds Dick Diver facing up to an unenviable predicament – their last album, Calendar Days, was released to such critical applause that their follow up release automatically has a huge (and some would say unfair) hurdle to overcome – is it better than the last LP? And the answer is….. maybe. Melbourne, Florida might not be a better album per se, but it is innovative enough and distinct enough from the band’s other releases that the comparison doesn’t do either album justice.
Just the title of the new record brings up so many ideas – the Americanisation of our culture, the sense of displacement we feel about what it means to be Australian, as well as being a musical reference to Jim Morrison’s birthplace. Great albums assert themselves from the title onward and Melbourne, Florida’s packaging – including the sparse cover art – sets the tone for the rest of the LP.
The actual album starts off in the best way possible with the short, sharp and witty “Waste the Alphabet”. Sung by guitarist Alistair McKay, whose fragile, almost naive voice gives the song’s lyrics extra emotional force, the track acts as a mission statement for the rest of the album: the band is expanding their sound, with more assertive guitar parts, and a more prominent horn section, while still remaining true to the jangly pop they’re best known for. “Waste the Alphabet” opener is followed by two more standout tracks – the stately “Year in Pictures” and “Leftovers”, a highly successful foray into anthemic pop, with a layered build up of instruments that brings to mind comparisons with U2 at their most orchestral.
While changing things up musically, Melbourne, Florida also looks outwards lyrically. Dick Diver is named after the protagonist of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, so you can bet this is a band who spend a fair amount of time on the words they put to the music. In this album, the band has moved away from site-specific references to Australian-ness in favour of more universal themes – loneliness, the fragility of male hostility, and political intrigue. They tackle each subject with approachable but complex lyrics. Melbourne, Florida can be as deep as you want it to be – it stands up musically without the need to analyse the words, but there is real poetry in them if you want to find it.
Not everything works on this album – the psychological examination of masculinity “Beat Me Up (Talk to a Counsellor)” is pretty spot on lyrically, but the music feels like it’s lacking some punch. And the instrumental “Resist” is pretty, but you get the feeling the album wouldn’t have lost anything for its omission.
Overall though, Dick Diver have managed to avoid the trap of failing to live up to their masterpiece debut by subtly shifting the goalposts – this is a very different album from Calendar Days that expands their musical range (and therefore their audience) while staying true to the things that we fell in love with in the first place. Melbourne, Florida stands on its own as an album, and anyone who likes their jangle-pop with a bit of instrumental experimentation will have it on high rotation.
Review Score: 8.4 out of 10.
Melbourne, Florida is out now through Chapter Music.
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