Van Diemen's Land (album)
| Van Diemen's Land | ||||
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| Studio album by Russell Morris | ||||
| Released | 11 April 2014 | |||
| Recorded | 2013-14 | |||
| Genre | Rock music, Blues music, Folk music | |||
| Label | Fanfare, Ambition Records | |||
| Producer | Mitch Cairns | |||
| Russell Morris chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Renowned for Sound |   |
| The Music Au |
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| Reverb Online |
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| Rolling Stone Australia |
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Van Diemen's Land is a studio album by Australian singer–songwriter Russell Morris. It was released on 11 April 2014 by Fanfare, Ambition Records. The album peaked at number 4 on the ARIA Charts, becoming Morris' highest chart album in his career.
Van Diemen's Land covers great Australian characters and stories including Breaker Morant, Sandakan and Eureka Rebellion and host of special guest artists including Joe Camilleri, Rick Springfield, Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil), Scott Owen (The Living End), Ross Hanford (Daddy Cool), Vika and Linda Bull, Phil Manning (Chain) and Joe Robinson were present on the album.
Morris said; “Van Diemen’s Land is an album that has been an amazing experience to make. With the success of Sharkmouth, it really let me off my leash so to speak. It showed me that people want music that tells them a story and moves them.”
A music video for the song "Van Diemen's Land" was released on 11 August 2014. It was directed by Lucas Thyer and filmed in Blue Lake in the Central Highlands of Tasmania.
Angus Fitz-Burden from Renowned for Sound said; "Other than the minimalist mid-album blues dirges "Breaker Morant" and "Loch and Gorge" and the telephone-filtered "Sandakan", the vast majority of the album doesn’t really stray from the stock standard, no frills Aussie pub-band sound of the early ‘80s that you still seem to hear in seedy pubs throughout the land however virtually doesn’t exist anymore on the vast spectrum of modern music. While it’s definitely nice to hear some attention paid to intriguing, textured lyrical content nowadays, they kind of read like that dusty old book of bush poetry that sits unread to this day on the bookshelf in your dad’s home-office."
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