Michael Cullen is a poet with a golden baritone and in my opinion the ghost of Johnny Cash crooning in his ear.
The Sydney, Australia born Michael Cullen, has a voice dripping in melancholy wither singing or providing spoken word on his songs. Some listening to his second solo album “True Believer” may take issue with the spoken word method of delivering his lyrical vision, but everything isn’t for everyone.
The album consists of nine tracks ….I danced around the nine tracks and listened to the first track Black Dog. Black Dog is a dark song that has the singer and the listener wrapped up in a man who wonders how life will twist and turn for him, a bit of a tale of woe. Michael Cullen has played for years in varied bands, in the 80′ and 90’s in Australia, he was apart of the acclaimed band No Man’s Land and Watershed and The Hardheads.
For this recent musical foray,Michael Cullen worked with Tim Powles of The Church band and Danton Supple mixed the album…Danton Supple has worked with noted musicians, Morrissey and Coldplay. From the music crafted on this album you might hear some of Cullen’s musical influence like David Bowie, ABBA, Elvis Costello and wonder at what genre you should fit him into, goth, indie rock, alternative or punk, why label? just enjoy!. Songs of note, in no particular order,I thought were Black Coffee and Cigarettes, Broken Horsesand the sultry spoken wordy Cha,Cha,Cha d’Amour with it’s David Bowie influence in a sensual tale about the universal search for love. Ah, love no better subject matter for a song!
True Believer released on Oct 1, 2014
Listen here on Bandcamp: http://michaelpcullen.bandcamp.com/
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