Last week, Ann mentioned a word that makes the generation of Australians who completed their schooling between the years 2009 and 2013 cringe pretty hard – belonging. Francisco’s Fortune, an indie-rock solo project from Sydneysider Manik Mayadunne, has just released a solo project which is lyrically just a little belongingy side. If you’re prone to violent flashbacks to the torment that was high school English class, you might try to tune out now, but you’d be doing yourself a huge disservice.
Magnetic Lines is the first studio recorded work from Mayadunne, arranged by ARIA nominated sound engineer
Lachlan Mitchell and what slap you in the face first is the tickly little compressed guitar lick. It’s almost as though a riff from
I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted shaved off it’s three day growth, put on a suit and did its best to try and find a job. This texture comes to define the song’s biggest strength – straightforward and clean-cut production, with instrumentation that perhaps belies a desire for something a little less formal.The sweet harmonies and shuffling drumbeats throughout are reminiscent of what I believe artists like
Vance Joy and
Boy and Bear to sound like. I can’t name a single Boy and Bear song, but I have pretended to know who they are in order not to alienate “music loving” girls at parties, and from what I gather Francsico’s Fortune would look (and no doubt sound) damn good on a bill with any number of these local not-quite-folk, not-quite-indie harmony makers.
This is only the first release from our boy Manik, and we’re looking forward to catching him on his string of upcoming East Coast tour dates. With a voice like his, we have no doubt that his live shows will define him as one of Australia’s artists to watch out for in the coming years.
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