Harry Permezel is a singer songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. He wrote, recorded, and produced this album himself. The album “Wax Man” was released on May 4, 2018. You might like this album if you like Elliot Smith, Sufjan Stevens and/or Wednesday.
His songs often feel calming yet driven, and more often than not have moderately sad subject matter.
“Wax Man”
This track is my favorite on the album. The guitar, drums, and vocals are closely unified in rhythm which makes the song feel driven, but not quite upbeat.
One of my favorite features of Permezel’s writing is exhibited well in this song; His lyrics often seem less like an interpretation of an experience and more like the an account of what happened. This kind of writing leaves room subjective interpretation which is often a mark of good songwriting.
The song begins with these lyrics:
“Trying to stop the little hand of the clock
“Wax Man” Lyrics by Harry Permezel
With all the bills you have got
A fair while outside of the city
You drove that car so fast”
The lines establish clearly that there is someone in the speaker’s life who wishes to pause time, and does the closest thing possible (driving out of the city and ignoring their problems). The speaker then elaborates more about this avoidant character and establishes that their is trust between themselves and the character.
Eventually the song ends with this lyric:
“Trying to stop the little hand of the clock/
“Wax Man” lyrics by Harry Permezel
Will not do anything”
The first half of this couplet duplicates the first line that appears in the song while the second half modifies the first lines original meaning. This is a creative way to end the song and could possibly be described as a humorous as the advice contradicts the listener’s expectations.
“Bonehead”
In this song’s lyrics, the speaker clearly feels distant and indignant, but the musical aspects of the track feel almost peaceful. This juxtaposition is opposite of the experience of the speaker in the song. The speaker recalls:
“Scary sounds drowning out the thoughts I thought would make me feel better”
“Bonehead” lyrics by Harry Permezel
In the speakers life, sound drowns out attempts at positivity, but in the song, negative thoughts are drowned out by sound.
One of the coolest production moments on the album occurs in the first chorus of the song. The section begins with a straightforward harmony in which there is a main vocal and two more other vocals alongside it, but soon after, the voices are panned left to right and sing single words one after another. This use of stereo audio makes it sound like the vocals are bouncing from one ear to another which creates an interesting listening experience.
Conclusion
This is one of my favorite albums, which makes it difficult to to give it a rating. The songs on the album are very well written and were produced in an intriguing and memorable way. I will admit though that there isn’t really anything groundbreaking about the album, but that is not to say that every musical project needs to be.
I’ll give the album an 8/10
-Daniel Turk
