Rhubarb - Slow Motion

First published in the Wentworth Courier, Jun ‘02

When it comes to the often brutal and cutthroat genre of “food” bands, Brisbane indie-emergers Rhubarb have some stiff competition in the kitchen. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cake, Fiona Apple, Custard, the Black Eyed Peas… and they’re only the ones off the top of my head. Korn, there’s another one. But even with this packed out pop pantry, those with queasy stomachs may find the smoother musical stylings of Rhubarb a tad more palatable and easier to digest than the roughage of Regurgitator. Help, I’ve been possessed by Ainsley Harriot! Demons, out of the kitchen!

Slow Motion is Rhubarb’s second full-length effort, following the “critically acclaimed” debut Kamikaze. Now being the musical man about town my delusional alter ego thinks he is, I thought I knew about every band, so perhaps slow motion is more apt way of describing Rhubarb than kamikaze. Rather than bursting onto the scene, Rhubarb have crept their way into radio consciousness taking out the Brisbane Triple J Unearthed, slipping the delicate Light on your shoulder quietly into last year’s Hottest One Hundred, and now adding the delightful Caroline and title track Slow Motion to the daily J dose.

And their take on rock is perhaps just as stealthy. Hardly an assault on your stereo, Rhubarb seep into your cerebellum with songs shifting from simple acoustic guitar, to fully orchestrated string sections, to all out balls and all rock ‘n roll. Yet all the while the sense of the intellectual is never far from the speaker. This is an album for all those sensitive pony-tail guys out there, yearning for a soundtrack to the deeply emotive poetry they are writing for their future girlfriends. Emotional yet logical, hard yet soft once you get to know me, bright yet teetering on the edge of a bleaker well of despair, but always earnest and extremely competent. Ok so they’re no Bananarama, but you can’t have everything now can you.