Jack Ladder is one of those artists that has been ‘bubbling under’ for a few years now. His first album Not Worth Waiting For came and went with little fanfare and he seemed to be a perennial support artist around Sydney, performing with visitors such as Jason Molina, Bill Callahan and Okkervil River.

Love is Gone arrives with an underlying sense of expectation. In the last few months his name has appeared in numerous blogs, street press and You Tube postings and his story of relocation to New York and a change in style with the new record has caught on quickly. The purported new sound is one that incorporates a number of recurring stylistic traits that appear in the form of links to classic late night dive bar r&b and bluesy rock n roll. The gorgeous ‘I Love Your Mind’ is a swaying and swooning take on the sweaty gospel and country soul of the 1960’s. It is the kind of feel that contemporaries like Tindersticks have mastered over recent years albeit with a more velvety smoothness.

Ladder made an excellent choice in taking on members of Pivot and Triosk as his backing band. Musically the album is strong on folky strums, Stax-like horn stabs and looser Stonesy romps, as on ‘Case Closed’, and the band give the songs a tightness and in particular, a strong focus on the rhythm and groove, the key to the backbeat feel that pervades the album. At times it almost borders on pastiche as they veer a little too closely to a sound akin to classics like ‘Time is Tight’ by Booker T. & The MG’s.

The way that Ladder avoids this parody (just) is through his vocal style and his lyrics. Lyrically he treads the path of lost love (hence the album title) across the bulk of the album, one of the exceptions being the catchy but bizarre closing song ‘Mother (Bird is the Word)’ which discusses the subject, perhaps not literally, of eating one’s mother. Animals in fact appear repeatedly in his lyrics. He sings of ducks, rats, dogs, owls and wolves, all animals that in literary terms often inhabit the darker side of the human spirit. Ok, perhaps not ducks.

His vocal style is another element that helps him stand out from the crowd. On slower tracks like ‘You Won’t Be Forgotten’ his delivery slows down and his voice shows touches of Antony in its grain while at other times a Cohenesque feel comes through. It is his vocal habits that are perhaps the only thing holding him back in delivering a really great album. Too often he repeats the dips and sighs in his singing and coupled with the wordier passages it can be bit distracting. In some of the higher tempo tracks Ladder incorporates some Dylanisms into his phrasing and when he uses repetitive couplets like “The Barber’s son won’t cut his hair/Nurse’s daughter does not care/Jockey’s son won’t ride the mare/ Devil’s daughter does not care” on ‘The Barber’s Son’ his manner can appear a tad contrived at times.

Love is Gone is quite a unique album to come out of Australia in that it overwhelmingly references 60’s American music but still retains some element of connection to an Australian indie sensibility, perhaps due to the lack of brashness or the shadow of sensitivity that Ladder invests in the record. This record grows catchier with each spin and the distractions do settle into the sound when one isn’t focusing with such a critical ear. His next release should be an interesting listen after he has soaked up the experiences of New York the wider musical world.