Stephen Cummings "Happiest Man Alive" (4*)

Having spotted The Sports Fair Game EP when it appeared as NME's Record Of The Week in 1977 I've been watching Stephen Cummings' career over the intervening thirty-five years with considerable interest. While The Sports attained a reasonably high profile, after the band broke up in 1981 Cummings went, more or less into stealth mode, releasing albums at regular intervals and maintaining an increasingly lower profile.

Sure, he had a habit of turning up on Channel Nine's Sunday program when there was a new album out, and there was, at one point, a social media presence that provided interesting reading as Cummings mused on various matters but that went belly up a while back (though he was back blogging at http://www.spiritualbum.blogspot.com.au/ earlier this year), and I only learned of his most recent album (Reverse Psychology) in a passing reference.

Situations like that produce a visit to iTunes, and while you're there you tend to have a look at what else is there with a view to filling in any gaps in the collection, which is how I ended up catching Happiest Man Alive which had slipped by undetected or forgotten in 2008.

As his fourteenth collection of new material since 1984's Senso, Happiest Man Alive sees Cummings in what I'm inclined to refer to as cottage industry mode, cutting the tracks more or less on the fly over two days with long-term associates Bill McDonald and Billy Miller (The Ferrets) with a third day devoted to mixing the ten tracks.

There’s the usual Cummings acoustic philosophy on Love Is Space And Time, This Song Can Save You and What A Joy It Is To Dance And Sing (with the latter doing a bit of Brazilian samba) and Oh To Be Loved, a bit of a cynical snarl about the decline in political and economic integrity on Sick Comedian (What’s that? A television for a head) and You Know It All By Heart (But you don’t have a heart), the requisite literary references (Raymond Chandler and Edward Hopper, The Ballad Of Henry Miller) and by Straight To Your Arms and Don't You Ever Listen To Me? long term listeners will be in totally familiar territory. Lowlights and Trick Mirrors sounds like a reasonably upbeat way to wind things up until you take a listen to the words and come to the conclusion that it’s Cummings operating in his regular territory.

Acoustic guitar throughout, handclaps rather than drums (what was that line about everything sounding better with ‘em?) delivers a natural feel, as if you’ve got the outfit in the living room, and there’s a warmth to the performance that underlines Cummings’ standing as one of the better songsmiths out there.

Live performance, from what I can ascertain from third party sources, might be hit and miss, but whack him in a studio with a sheaf of material and a couple of players who know the way he works and in a day or two you’ve got  an intuitive observation of the world he meanders through.

Cummings is inclined towards regular announcements that his current recording will be the last (he followed this with Reverse Psychology, so I’m not suggesting he did so with this one four years back) and while that’s eventually going to come true, as long as he’s recording I’ll be queueing up to buy the results.

Provided, of course, I find out the latest one’s out there.

Stephen Cummings "Reverse Psychology" (4*)

A couple of years he was the Happiest Man Alive, and about twelve months later everything was Tickety Boo, so where does Reverse Psychology fit into the continuing saga of that bloke who used to front The Sports?

It's a bit over two years since that last studio effort, and Stephen Cummings gigs tend to be few and far between, so at a guess he's been sitting quietly in suburban Lovetown reading, listening to music and doing the odd bit of writing. This latest effort's not exactly a long player, and at $13.52 for a touch over half an hour's music you might not be inclined to look favourably on this eight track extended EP.

Then again you're looking at a long term songwriting talent who has managed to find himself a cosy niche in a fairly quiet market as he skips across genres as the mood takes him. It's not quite Elvis Costello territory, since Cummings has always given the impression of being somewhat more laid back than the bloke who was once reckoned to be churning songs out at the rate of one a day.

As far back as The Sports era, where Cummings was one of the main writers in an outfit that ranged across Little Feat-style slink through power pop into new wave territory, there has always been something interesting in a new Cummings-related recording and Reverse Psychology continues that tradition.

Take the first three tracks here as an example. After a whooshy synth intro, Stupidity evolves into a bluesy ballad, the vocoder-based Ooga Booga has proved to be a significant ear worm in these parts and would, with different backing track, have fitted nicely with the rockabilly on Firecracker and there's a vaguely Mediterranean flavour to The Cat And The Coq that contrasts nicely with the previous retro synths. 

They’re different takes on a characteristic style, and once you’re familiar with the man’s work you’re hardly likely to mistake him for anyone else, but he’s a writer and performer who’ll roam across the genres and, as a couple of albums (Close Ups and Good Bones if you want specifics) have shown, he’s quite willing to rejig earlier material into different styles.

He’s not, in other words, your old one trick pony.

With long-time collaborator Rebecca Barnard sighing away in the background Not In My Skin is familiar territory, as is Through December and after I Can't Stay Mad At You starts to lift the tempo there's some sizzling guitar work on the rocker All Day, with it's references to a certain well known song by The Kinks. Back in familiar Cummings territory You Should Get Out More wraps things up rather nicely. 

Cummings, along with latter-day preferred collaborator Billy Miller (The Ferrets) continues to hop and bop through the genres, and though mileages might vary there's invariably something in a new Cummings recording to attract Hughesy's attention. As far as I can tell (it's an extensive discography, after all) I've got everything he's done in the past, barring a couple of compilations and there's nothing here that'll stop me from queueing up for a copy next time around.