Albums of the Year 2014 #10 Chet Faker - Built On Glass

Built On Glass, the debut long player by Australian singer, producer and song writer Nick Murphy, better known as Chet Faker is our tenth most played / favourite record of the year. 

Why? Because whilst Faker might have come to prominence a few years ago with his cover of No Diggity and got labelled as some sort of internet sensation (remember when we first mentioned that song and his beard at Great Escape festival when he played a small sweat lined basement alongside Haim and Foxes here?), his debut album (winner of this year’s Triple J Australian Album of the Year award) is no flash in the pan. Made from a mix of accessibility and experimentation, Built On Glass has plenty of classy electronic sounds, but because Faker is a musician as well as a producer he has been able to bring a much more organic feel to the work, adding warmth, depth and therefore a longer term appeal.

Built On Glass is an album in the old fashioned sense that it is very much divided into two parts. Part one is the safer and more easily digestible side. Songs such as the smooth sounding single Talk is Cheap reside there. But then halfway through an old fashioned sounding voice over announces over a crackle: “That was the other side of the record. Now relax still more and drift a little deeper as you listen…. “ and that’s the signal for Built On Glass to go off and explore different sonic territories. Here you’ll find the likes of 1998 which sounds like Sting’s younger more bearded brother singing over a slo-mo house track. Yes we know that sounds absurd, but it actually works. Or maybe try the near 8 minute long track Cigarettes and Loneliness which comes across as if we’ve just stumbled into a modern day Paul Simon singing along to a minimalistic rhythmic backing piece. It’s these songs that the ADD types who only want playlists and 3 minute pop songs will struggle with, but it’s also these songs that the more patient long-player lover will probably find the most absorbing.

Chet Faker - Talk Is Cheap (Video)

Chet Faker - 1998