78 Saab

Audio MP3 Warm Jets  Audio MP3 Come On Audio MP3 Sunshine

78 Saab walk the creative tightrope between classic rock and pop with a unique style of song writing that has won critical acclaim from both media and fans alike.

Listening to 78 Saab’s first three albums  (Picture a Hum Can’t Hear a Sound, Crossed Lines and The Bells Line) is like looking at old photos. Real photos. The kind of gems you keep in a shoebox marked ‘do not throw away’. Photos where you have your arm around someone you used to love, a terrible haircut and you’re wearing a You Am I t-shirt from 1996.
The t-shirt’s faded, the haircut’s gone and so is that someone, but the good news is that you can put the nostalgia back in the shoebox, because 78 Saab is here with a new love.

Good Fortune is the band’s fourth album, and it is full of the dynamics, mood, melody and classic songwriting we’ve come to expect from the Saab. Add in a slightly darker edge, thanks to some of life’s nasty little punches creeping their way into the lyrics, and you’ve got yourself an album of ten, short, sharp songs that will have you singing, dancing, crying and pressing repeat at the end of it all.

Ben Nash’s world-weary lyrics are at their best, whether they’re lamenting the passing of an old friend on Warm Jets, or admiring the magic and wonder of a child’s world on Small Things. A couple of Dylan’s greatest moments get a tip of the hat on Chasing the Light, while Never Gonna Be gets the kiss of life, having originally been written in a Brisbane backpacker hostel in 1997.

Honesty is something you can spot a mile away, so when Nash sings ‘don’t ever lose sight of what you truly believe in’ on Whatever Rules You Break you’ll be glad to have your heart broken by him and his cohorts, Garth Tregillgas, Jake Andrews and Nicholai Danko. And you wouldn’t be the first.

If you’ve been to a music festival in the last 10 years, chances are you’ve seen 78 Saab at their best. Several Big Day Out, Homebake and Falls Festival appearances account for some of the notches on the 78 Saab belt of awesomeness. The other umpteen notches are for The Shins, Guided By Voices, You Am I, Band of Horses, Magic Dirt, and plenty more that have been shown a thing or two by this iconic Sydney four-piece.

You won’t see 78 Saab doing DJ sets, and they probably won’t feature in an ad for hair product, but they do know where the best pubs in Australia are, can tell you who played hooker for Newtown in 1981 and will fight you if you badmouth their favourite band. They can also write a bloody good song.

No doubt you’ll look back on this album with an even greater fondness than their previous work, but don’t forget to enjoy it while it’s here, now. After all, 78 Saab’s good fortune, is your good fortune.

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