Solo musician Ivan Beecroft is back with what is perhaps his rawest and most honest album yet, Whatever. An artist from Australia, it will then strike the listener as fitting that Beecroft at times sounds reminiscent of the hard rock of INXS, the stadium-sized pop of Icehouse, and the dreaminess of The Church. But his voice as a lyricist is quintessentially his own, and themes on this album of working class struggles and frustrations are rarely communicated as viscerally and effectively. Often is it that a musician with a day job will sing solely of dreams and longings, but Beecroft instead brings his music down to earth and doesn’t shy away from the realities of a blue collar existence.
Ostensibly, many of the songs are deeply autobiographical, and they range in mood from stridently anarchic (“Got A Reputation”) to resignedly melancholic (the beautifully sincere “Ordinary Man”). Having worked as a steel worker, there is a startling gritty authenticity to his voice, and the fact that he largely self-produces his own work only adds further credibility to his stance as a musician. Whatever is an album that is rough around the edges, but perhaps that’s the point and it’s all the better for it.
