Feature: Ricky Albeck - Expensive Music
An ebullient but defiant release that rushes by like a gleeful getaway car driving towards the dawn of a new era, post-pub-rock artist Ricky Albeck reveals latest album ‘Expensive Music’.
It was written from a “dirt-cheap” room in Collingwood’s backstreets during an exceptionally wet Melbourne winter (this particular room housed an old, bright red, boarded-up jacuzzi) and is “probably the most fun and tongue in cheek” song on the record, with the titular refrain chanted relentlessly by Ricky and Ella Ion on backing vocals.
Ricky Albeck goes all in on Expensive Music, revisiting memories of drinking for fun (and sometimes to excess), heartbreak, love and nostalgia in a new light, wrestling with his how to make it as a working musician ‘in these times’.
Melancholic for eras bygone (‘Playing Pool and Drinking All Night’, ‘Rerun City’, ‘Spend The Night’), and yearning for a future dreamed up but not yet realised (‘Famous Friends’, ‘Breakfast Plans’), retrospect and anticipation do the heavy lifting thematically across the record, occasionally brushing up against the temptation of an alternate timeline where Ricky quits music for good (‘Mum, Stevie & Me’).
Despite the allure of escape and distraction, Ricky bravely keeps returning to the present, where both the challenges and rewards of a life dedicated to art inject his music with the power to bring both him and the listener back to the present (‘Everything’, ‘Expensive Music’).
Expensive Music was recorded to tape live in the room with Jon McNichol at Twin Earth in Tarntanya/Adelaide (“he’s got a heap of really cool shit there. It’s also a nice big live room and we knew we wanted to do it all live”)
Alongside The Belair Line Band - featuring Ella Ion (backing vocals), Harry Freeman (drums), Tom Spall (violin), Jackson Wright (bass), Alex Dearman (guitar), with the addition of Edo Ekic (Peter Bibby, Carla Geneve) on 3rd guitar - with ‘Famous Friends’ and ‘Expensive Music’ coming to life live in the room at The Rat Shack in Naarm/Melbourne engineered by Robert Muiños (Julia Jacklin, Rowena Wise, Matt Dixon), who also co-produced the record alongside Ricky.
Ricky Albeck’s latest album ‘Expensive Music’ is available to stream now via Bedroom Suck Records.
