An array of exceptional songwriting shines throughout Flash Channel, the debut album from Australian singer-songwriter Nathan Kendall. Spanning 12 tracks, the release reflects years of work while moving between rock, pop, psychedelia, soul, folk, prog, and Americana, with lush arrangements and heartfelt vocals giving its stylistic range a cohesive character.
The album’s title track opens the release with rousing momentum, expanding quickly from a plane-like ambience to thick guitar strums and an ensuing eruption of distortion. The guitar-based fervency takes strong hold prior to Kendall’s lead emergence, emitting a more introspective presence initially as mellow keys and strummed acoustics pair alongside. “Am I ever gonna come back down?” his delivery ascends in pitch, complemented by responsive backing harmonies into the culminating “is it time to let love in?” question. Another soaring hook follows, smitten in its “I’ll stay with you all night” declaration; the track dazzles in its shifts between mellower intrigue and bursting ardor, and makes for a resonating kick-off to this excellent album.
The ensuing “Didn’t Deny” also delights in its alternations between soulful, high-timbred phrasing and heightened, anthemic pulls, fondly reminiscent of Manic Street Preachers as twangy guitars and luminous synth enamor during the delectably hooky “the suits won’t tell” sequence, escalating subsequently to a title-bearing melodic punchiness, straddling a lovely balance between power-pop and alternative. The album’s opening one-two punch is exemplary of Kendall’s ability to shift between lusher momentum and heartfelt vigor. The lyricism is artful and literary as well, capturing a Kafkaesque prowess in detailing a man on trial who trades integrity for public performance while facing an inevitable downfall.
Highlights continue throughout the release, from the synth-powered gorgeousness of “Parallel Lines” to the serenely inviting folk-rock caressing within “Only The Road,” capturing lingering thoughts in one’s mind, contemplating a love that’s “so hard to find” into a rousing chorus. “Parallel Lines” consumes in its interplay of effervescent synths and guitars, shifting into a chugging rock sound in the initial verses, before a riveting enthrallment: “Nobody can make me feel, the way you make me feel,” adoring lines let out, with the conveying of “something there between us” continuing to establish feelings of emotional connection running in tandem without ever truly merging. The “somewhere we’re singing your song together” lends a heartrending fixation on what could have been, continuing to showcase the artist’s ability to meld emotional weight with dynamically melodic productions. The strings are another immersive force in the production, especially in the final couple minutes, invigorating with powerful lead performances and chamber-pop, rock, and electronic sophistication.
“Life On The Outside” is another stunner, moving between throwback folk appeal and expressive rock guitar. Betrayal and broken trust pair with an urge to break free from disillusionment and reclaim agency. “I gave you all my secrets / But you only went and let me down,” the phrasing laments alongside lovely backing flourishes, emitting a striving for betterment and self-power in the “let me see the man I should” line. Meanwhile album finale “Secret Dove” dazzles across both subdued folk and resonating dramatic theatrics. Thematically, it plays like a culmination of various themes, from the distance of “Parallel Lines” and the disillusionment of “Life On The Outside.” A surrendering to fate is conveyed in lines like “Don’t save us now / When we’re falling to pieces,” accepting fractured bonds and emotional distance as needing to ultimately fade together. Abundant in both replay-inducing hooks and emotionally charged songcraft, Flash Channel is a stellar full-length achievement from Nathan Kendall.
