ALBUM REVIEW: Watty Thompson brushes off expectations with emotive debut

You get the feeling Thompson has been underestimated his whole life.

However his debut album Watty Thompson cannot be ignored. Scratch beneath its frayed surface and there's a more complicated story at play.

This is an album uniquely Australian - with all it's tarnished beauty, it's cheeky humour and relate-able fallibility. But mostly it's a story of optimism.

After a decade spent cutting his teeth in Melbourne's pub rock scene playing with bands like The Neptune Power Federation, Thompson returned to the small Victorian town of Gerangamete in the Otways before the pandemic started in 2020.

There Thompson poured his feelings into a collection of country-folk flavoured with a heavy dose of Australiana.

Thompson's ocker drawl could sound caustic to some ears, but underneath there's an emotional intelligence and a knack for melody, which is elevated further by a rich tapestry of violins.

On the uplifting opener By Your Side, Thompson offers a traditional Aussie story of mateship, when he sings, "If you're sucking the splinters from a dried empty trough/ I'll bring the water before your last cough/ I'll always be by your side."

But then on Jenny he tackles man's inability to offer that support to the women they love, as he sings, "I wish that I could talk, but I don't and then you get hurt."

City To Run about escaping the rat race for the country is a pure pop gem that sounds like a beaming smile and A Revolving Lament's upbeat country-pop belies the track's important message about battling alcoholism.

On Your Shoulder is a grand statement coloured by soaring Celtic flutes and rock guitar as Thompson sings, "Climb a mountain and sing, do everything in your power/ It would be a terrible scene to give up on your dreams before they flower."

Thompson didn't give up on his dreams and now they're flowering.