The Bedroom Philosopher - ‘songs from the 86 tram’
August 4th 2010 08:45
“Songs From The 86 Tram” is based on Justin Heazlewood’s comedy routine that won awards and recognition at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and across the globe. Always have a penchant for writing humorous songs, this album takes the characters and creates a soundtrack biography.
‘Middle Aged Mum’ is a somber, haunting tale of a mother whose children have grown up and left home and her husband is selling potatoes in Iraq. She ponders on her boring life traveling to Flemington to buy a Lady Remington and fantasizing about making a salad for Andre Rieu.
‘We Are Tramily’ is Justin’s hip hop shout out to the characters and cliches that ride the 86 tram. The line “use can choose you friends but you can’t chose your tramily” sets the scene of what this album is about with a John Farnham breakdown in the middle. (ps-Justin cannot rap!!)
‘Sudanese’ is tale of a Sudanese man trying to find his place in a new home behind a Ben Lee inspired musical score. Justin treads the fine line of humour and racism, thankfully falling on the humour side with intelligence and a poignant message at the end. Check out the line “they judge me for the colour of my scarf. red and black. i guess like in my homeland. no one likes the bombers”.
‘Trishine’ is a bogan love song of heartache and poor use of the English language. Lines like “words are shithouse. the alphabets a poof” and “you are the bowl and I am the cheezels.” sung by a drunk yobbo make this one of the funniest tracks on the album and almost sounds like a Kevin Bloody Wilson song.
‘Northcote (So Hungover)’ is the first single and is a stab at pretentious art house indie musicians who a full of their own self importance. Think tight skinny jeans, extra small striped t shirt, scarf and ray ban wayfarers and you get what I mean. The best line “I’m sorry you can’t make it to my party, i just didn’t invite you.”
‘Irish Girl’ is a ditty about a Irish girl living in Australia and being pissed off about her experience so far. She declares at being a “temping superstar” and how “funky office environment” means call centre work. The best is when she attacks God for making her in his image. A short Irish girl with a razor sharp wit that annoys her boyfriends.
‘Tram Inspector’ is a funky, sexy rock song about....a tram inspector. ‘Man On A Tram’ is a performance poetry piece about...a man on a tram. This is followed by ‘Song To Nod Off To’ a four minute beautiful instrumental acoustic track that you could fall asleep to listening it to on a tram. Smart move Justin!
‘In My Day’ is an old lady character telling you how it was in her day with over exaggerations of how tough it was, how poor she was and how different life was. Apparently cows were called land whales, a memory stick is a stick your father hit you with when you forget something and toast comes in a can from Japan.
‘New Media’ is my favourite track where he attacks pretentious artists again but this time instead of musicians he rips into art student graduates who have all these ideas and projects but really are just unemployed arseholes. Set to a Cure sounding track it’s the sarcastic humour that impresses me about Justin Heazlewood.
Final track ‘Old Man At End’ is about a old digger who reaches not only the end of his tram line but the end of his life and how he won’t be able to smuggle his hip flask into heaven. A simple metaphor but sung in an old man’s voice makes seem more emotional. Thats what I love about this album. He can embody the characters and make them sound nothing like the skinny nerdy white guy he really is. Justin has taken a successful comedy routine and turn into a soundtrack around the simplest of subjects....a tram ride. Equal parts humour to solid musical tracks, by far one of the smartest musical comedy albums you’ll hear for awhile.
‘Middle Aged Mum’ is a somber, haunting tale of a mother whose children have grown up and left home and her husband is selling potatoes in Iraq. She ponders on her boring life traveling to Flemington to buy a Lady Remington and fantasizing about making a salad for Andre Rieu.
‘We Are Tramily’ is Justin’s hip hop shout out to the characters and cliches that ride the 86 tram. The line “use can choose you friends but you can’t chose your tramily” sets the scene of what this album is about with a John Farnham breakdown in the middle. (ps-Justin cannot rap!!)
‘Sudanese’ is tale of a Sudanese man trying to find his place in a new home behind a Ben Lee inspired musical score. Justin treads the fine line of humour and racism, thankfully falling on the humour side with intelligence and a poignant message at the end. Check out the line “they judge me for the colour of my scarf. red and black. i guess like in my homeland. no one likes the bombers”.
‘Trishine’ is a bogan love song of heartache and poor use of the English language. Lines like “words are shithouse. the alphabets a poof” and “you are the bowl and I am the cheezels.” sung by a drunk yobbo make this one of the funniest tracks on the album and almost sounds like a Kevin Bloody Wilson song.
‘Northcote (So Hungover)’ is the first single and is a stab at pretentious art house indie musicians who a full of their own self importance. Think tight skinny jeans, extra small striped t shirt, scarf and ray ban wayfarers and you get what I mean. The best line “I’m sorry you can’t make it to my party, i just didn’t invite you.”
‘Irish Girl’ is a ditty about a Irish girl living in Australia and being pissed off about her experience so far. She declares at being a “temping superstar” and how “funky office environment” means call centre work. The best is when she attacks God for making her in his image. A short Irish girl with a razor sharp wit that annoys her boyfriends.
‘Tram Inspector’ is a funky, sexy rock song about....a tram inspector. ‘Man On A Tram’ is a performance poetry piece about...a man on a tram. This is followed by ‘Song To Nod Off To’ a four minute beautiful instrumental acoustic track that you could fall asleep to listening it to on a tram. Smart move Justin!
‘In My Day’ is an old lady character telling you how it was in her day with over exaggerations of how tough it was, how poor she was and how different life was. Apparently cows were called land whales, a memory stick is a stick your father hit you with when you forget something and toast comes in a can from Japan.
‘New Media’ is my favourite track where he attacks pretentious artists again but this time instead of musicians he rips into art student graduates who have all these ideas and projects but really are just unemployed arseholes. Set to a Cure sounding track it’s the sarcastic humour that impresses me about Justin Heazlewood.
Final track ‘Old Man At End’ is about a old digger who reaches not only the end of his tram line but the end of his life and how he won’t be able to smuggle his hip flask into heaven. A simple metaphor but sung in an old man’s voice makes seem more emotional. Thats what I love about this album. He can embody the characters and make them sound nothing like the skinny nerdy white guy he really is. Justin has taken a successful comedy routine and turn into a soundtrack around the simplest of subjects....a tram ride. Equal parts humour to solid musical tracks, by far one of the smartest musical comedy albums you’ll hear for awhile.
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