On my stereo this week: Sarah McLeod’s new album ‘Rocky’s Diner’.

Though Sarah McLeod is now firmly entrenched in her home state of South Australia as a rock n roll legend, the Superjesus-singer-turned-solo-rocker still has plenty to offer by way of original material. She spent three months in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, writing new songs for her album Rocky’s Diner with the utmost care, which for a music veteran like McLeod, was all part of her exciting new philosophy to life and music. Every word and line in Rocky’s Diner has meaning, characterized by her reflection or deep thought of nostalgia, love and loss and people. That said, the album is an admirable accomplishment in its ability to convey her message, disguised it seems in her love for classic rock and soul. As she croons the opening track, Rocky’s Reprise and the albums end track, Rocky’s Diner, both songs in effect bookend an album that elbs and flows between various styles that truly suit her raspy, often heady sound.

As a self-confessed Superjesus fan, anything McLeod does outside of her duties as her band’s frontwoman, is of interest. She hasn’t always hit the mark with her material and despite some notable music publications lukewarm responses to this album, I believe both fans and newcomers will appreciate the ‘radical change of creative gears’ orchestrated by McLeod. With a real knack of speaking from the heart, songs like the anthemic sounding Giants, the surprisingly sultry Bad Valentine, Black Sheep and the beautiful Wild Hearts are all worth poring over.

Photo Credit: The album artwork of Rocky’s Diner is courtesy of Revolution Records. I make use of it under the rationale of fair use because no free equivalent seems to exist and it serve as the primary means of visual identification at the top of my article dedicated to the review in question. I am not the uploader of the You Tube clip embedded here.