Mark Pengilly – Anothery

“ANOTHERY”: (Released 2009) Contemporary acoustic songs…some ‘deep and meaningful’, others… ‘shallow and meaningless’ but always musically sophisticated featuring jazz tinged phrasing and organic instrumentation.
Track Listing 1. Vanessa 2. No Fun…It Ended 3. The Child In Man 4. Horse Riding 5. Storm For Me 6. Rake Them Out Of The War Game 7. Heartwashed 8. Says He 9. Three Hard Things 10. My Lover’s Travels 11. Just A Storeman Packer 12. You Tell Me
WORK HISTORY MUSIC (SINGER/SONGWRITER): Toured Australia as solo artist since 1972 Toured USA & UK (3 times) NZ and Europe playing acoustic venues,colleges, coffee houses and concerts. 1982: Released “A Strayer from Australia” (Larrikin Records).2 2003: Released “Nothing Borrowed”( Independent). 2007: End credits song for “Alana Whitewash” RMIT Best Student Film 2009: released “Anothery” (Independent)
Mark Pengilly – Anothery
CD review by Don Bannister
The Cover / Holder The front booklet/cover is a very nice impressionist watercolour painting landscape of rural Australian scrub and this is continued on the back of the front cover, which also contains the lyrics of the last song and information on the musicians and their instruments. Within the front cover are the lyrics to the other songs. The back cover also continues with the same artwork theme and the technical/art and contact details. The Artist Pengilly has unusual vocals and sings OK. Maybe his live performance is better that this album. His guitar playing is really quite good and has some wonderful picking/strumming styles and there are moments where he really shines on guitar. The Songs There are 12 songs, which are numbered and timed, ranging from 2.45 mins to 4.17, which are good times for radio play. All the songs are lyrically good to a point but just don’t make it in the end. “Three Hard Things” is one of the best songs on the album with some excellent improvisation on guitar. “My Lover’s Travels” should’ve been called “Welcome to a brand new Day “. This is an excellent song and the lyrical hook is “Welcome to a brand new day” which is hard to get out of your (my) head. General comments The front/back cover is great but does not refl ect the musical content. I think Mark Pengilly needs to rework his songs, even the best two. With some more creativity and perhaps a bit more fl amboyance in his music, particularly the guitar playing where he really shines and more songwriting workshops or talking with other songwriters to improve on his songs and he could have some really good material. This is a nice album but in the competitive world of music, nice wont really cut it. Get out of your shell Mark and let us see you shine.