Good Morning
Good Morning are Stefan Blair (left) and Liam Parsons
(press photo Pooneh Ghana, 2024)
Good Morning playlist
Contributor: Paul Jenkins
Good Morning are a duo from Melbourne who make a kind of lo-fi indie heartbreak rock that takes its influences from the likes of Yo La Tengo, Sparklehorse and Pavement. For a decade now, former school friends Liam Parsons and Stefan Blair have been building a small but significant audience for their brand of f*cked up relationship anthems. Their prolific output demands your commitment and rewards it, their body of work is already substantial for a band so barely known. So far, their biggest moment in the spotlight is having one of their songs, Warned You, sampled for a song by A$AP Rocky.
I first heard them when my friend Simon sent me a link to a song called Country. Country is one of those songs that you can’t stop wanting to hear just one more time when it’s first in your life. It will wreck your Spotify Most Wrapped for a couple of years. It’s a song about maybe missing someone, missing somewhere, a time and place and a person that might not have been very good for you but you cannot ever let it go completely i.e the perfect tune for that subject. It does that Grandaddy thing of weaving subtle bleeps of electronic noise into a surging piece of guitar pop.
Anyway, I find it very hard to write about them, like most of my favourite bands, they render me inarticulate other than just wanting to point to the stereo and say look this is special. After releasing an eight-minute single in November 2024, the band have just announced they are going on an extended hiatus after their current world tour.
| Track | Album / Single |
|---|---|
| Blue Tick | The Option |
| Boy, I’m Just A Loser For Your Love | Single, B-side, Download |
| Best Supporting Actor | Basketball Breakups |
| War On Me | Basketball Breakups |
| Garden | Basketball Breakups |
| Country | Barnyard |
| Big Wig//Small Dog | Barnyard |
| Arcade | Good Morning Seven |
| Toy | Good Morning Seven |
| Dog Years | Good Morning Seven |
THE SELECTIONS
I saw your name in the paper, I always knew I would. (Blue Tick)
An antisocial media anthem set to the kind of jangly guitar pop you’d forgotten you needed. Contains a c-bomb though so Sarah Records it ain’t.
You can’t celebrate a house falling down … (Boy, I’m Just A Loser For Your Love)
2am in the morning jukebox blues for the lo-fi kids. (B-side of Take It Easy For Me Stranger in 2019.)
I don’t need to list achievements, I just know them when I look across the room. (Best Supporting Actor)
I love this song. Imagine early Velvets having a stoned stab at Brown Sugar. A bassline way too high in the mix. A cowbell that just does what it wants and not especially in time. These may not sound the most promising ingredients but as Nicolas Cage says in Con Air, “Hey it’s your barbecue and it is delicious.” Or something like that.
Take care of survivors please. (War On Me)
Hard is it for me to pick a favourite for this lot, I’m going to do it and plump for this. I went through a stage a while back of listening to this and Livinˈ Thing by ELO back to back, unable to reach the words to prove my theory that these songs are distant relatives. Contains the kind of imprecise guitar solo that you used to love Malkmus for before he got all Steely Dan and polished.
I cashed my ticket and I made my millions. Spent it on nothing, no better feeling. (Garden)
Almost funky, slightly scatterbrained. Like the kind of thing you can imagine Beck singing to a depressed Big Bird on Sesame Street. This is high praise by the way. And lord knows what that answerphone (?) sample is but you’ll be saying it for weeks too …
The only thing about missing you, is I don’t miss you at all … (Country)
As I said earlier, this was the first song I heard by Good Morning. Sometimes it reminds me of early New Order, that euphoric sense of wonder as they let all these layers build and then fall away. A sense of longing permeates proceedings and, as I get older, I’m thinking of the people I let go more and more and this song really gets to me when I do.
I’d love to see the world through kinder eyes … (Big Wig//Small Dog)
Can’t decide which song from Watery, Domestic this is a homage to. Equally puzzling too is the horn arrangement at the start which I’m sure rips off an early Madness song. The brilliance of Good Morning is you know they’ve been listening to all the right records, but you can’t prove which ones.
When I said I want a daughter, darling, I wanted one with you. (Arcade)
A discomfiting electro blues, building from a simple keyboard melody and muted handclaps. Is it a response to The Suburbs by Arcade Fire? I don’t know. But it’s possible.
I’m sorry that I overstayed my welcome but I am on fire today. (Toy)
Dear Prudence for the TikTok generation. Or something. I’ve had a chest infection for weeks and this piece is overdue. Just trust me on this.
Most of what I did was alright, but the rest still keeps me up at night. (Dog Years)
My notes read Phil Spector with an eight quid budget. This is what this band reduces me to. Anyway this song ends with a reimagining of Fuck And Run by Liz Phair.
THE REVIEWS
“Lush retro pop balladry… melodious pop-rock, magnificently rendered with a gentle touch” Stereogum
“A strong claim to be the most underrated Australian band of their generation” Rolling Stone
“The music has the easiness you feel looking out at the ocean” Broadsheet
“They’ve concocted a scrappy blend of jangle pop, folksy ballads and noise rock with a cool-kid DIY flair” Paste
“The vocals wash over you like a warm shower while the arrangements trickle by like rainwater on a window. It’s completely natural and welcoming, satisfying on the ear, warm to the touch and authentic in its presence” Far Out magazine
New album released 29 November 2024
Good Morning on Polyvinyl Records
The Guardian Headline Act Mar 2024: Good Morning
Monster Children interview Mar 2024: Good Morning
Good Morning biography (AllMusic)
Paul Jenkins is a pop music obsessive living in fear of being found out as the owner of two Tight Fit singles. His opinions on life in general can be gleaned from his Twitter and Bluesky accounts. He lives in South Wales. His other posts on this site are on Arab Strap, Tindersticks, Grandaddy, Fonda 500, Silver Jews, Big Thief, Protomartyr, Walkmen.
TopperPost #1,134
Follow