Powderfinger are the most successful Australian rock band of the past decade. Their previous two albums have garnered the Aussie super-group nine ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) awards, including Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, and Record of the Year respectively for both Internationalist and Odyssey Number Five (their American debut). Vulture Street confirmed Powderfinger's status as heavyweights of the Australian music industry when they took home 3 additional ARIAs in late 2003, this time for Album of
the Year, Best Group, and Best Rock Album.

Their latest release has already reached over 5 x Platinum sales in their homeland. In November, Vulture Street will see it's stateside release, over a year after it's initial debut overseas. With their fifth album (second-only US release), Powderfinger (whose name is derived from the Neil Young song) emerge matured and self-assured. It's the most defined rock album these good Aussie blokes have made yet. The only declaration to really describe Vulture Street is "rock." Proof is strung from the opener "Rockin' Rocks," (doesn't really need an explanation, does it), to their first single "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind," with its massive riffs and larger-than-life pulse.

"Love Your Way" is a striking ballad that showcases Bernard Fanning's voice as hypnotic and accessible as ever. Not to mention his talent for eloquently crafting songs like they're gold waiting to be mined. The third single, "Sunsets" is the most feel-good song on the album and sustains Vulture Street, while offering a more soulful approach to what these guys have been doing for years. It's a winning combination seemingly landing itself somewhere between Southern Harmony-era Black Crowes and Shoulder of Giants-era Oasis.

For those keeping tabs, the band has been busy touring and have just added two more gems to their discography with a limited double-disc These Days: Live in Concert, as well as Fingerprints: The Best of Powderfinger 1994-2000 - both available as imports-only to the US most likely. Look for a US tour in February or March of next year.

What We Said Then

Powderfinger thumbed up from down under, catching my attention in 2001 with a remarkable masterstroke of an album called Odyssey # 5.
A record that found itself on many a best-of list that year, showing off songwriting that was textured, hooky as all hell and just rockin' enough to find itself beside similar bands (Coldplay, Travis, Supergrass Early Radiohead) pretty fancy company. Even more charming was the fact that frontman Bernard Fanning possesses a voice akin to Aussie predacessors' Barry and Robin Gibb.

With Odyssey # 5 being a notch or two better than it's predacessor, Internationalist, one would have cause to expect Vulture Street to continue this upward trend and really come with the goods.

So far the vast majority of the reviews I've read have all but insisted that Vulture Street sounded like a band picking the bones of these previous releases. For scraps? Expecting this, going in, I'm happy to report that it's a fat load of rubbish. The biggest complaint from the critics of the world wide web is that the band has purposely tried to rock-up their sound just for the sake of Rocking up the sound. Kind of the Aussie equivalent of Ryan Adams' Rock and Roll. I couldn't disagree more.

Yes, Vulture Street finds the band rolling it out at a faster tempo than usual, but for my money, it possesses plenty of hooks, just as many gracefully textured ballads, catchy choruses and memorable guitar licks - enough to the point where it makes the critics appear as if their gunning for Powderfinger just to make use of the Vulture metaphor. This is an album that fans will love and newcomers will find wide open arms to enter.

I've got one finger for all of you fickle Powder-f---ing fans who don't know a gift horse when it gallops into their lap. True it's not quite the bulleseye that Odyssey # 5 is, but it's a dart that doesn't stray very far afield from the dart before. True fans could aptly title this one Odyssey # 6.

Kevin Jones rated it a 4 as well.