Matt Corby review, Rainbow Valley: Australian singer-songwriter's second album has humour and tenderness

There’s less of a self-conscious attempt at cleverness ­– Corby clearly is more comfortable in his own skin, now

Australian singer-songwriter Matt Corby (Matt Johnson)

It took five EPs for Australian singer-songwriter Matt Corby to release his debut album, Telluric. Another two years have passed to reach its follow-up, Rainbow Valley. In that time, Corby has become a dad ­– which, in his own words, prompted him to “get his shit together”.

Single “No Ordinary Life” is a song both about fatherhood and Willy Wonka ­– the latter, in a way, is a kind of father figure to the hero of Roald Dahl‘s children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Opening with the gentle flurry of a harp and yearning violins, the song has echoes of “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 film adaptation. “You’ve been on the ordinary drugs / I can see that you’ve been tryin’ to make it on your own,” Corby sings, throatily. Then there’s a silent drop and the song blooms, as light arpeggios and a skittish drum backbeat lift it back up.

“I get angry at myself for trying to impress you,” Corby sang on “Knife Edge”, from Telluric. He isn’t taking himself so seriously here, so you have humour in the opening track being titled “Light My Dart Up” (“dart” is slang for a cigarette in Australia).

There’s less of a self-conscious attempt at cleverness ­– Corby clearly is more comfortable in his own skin, now. Just over a decade since the “big f***ing mistake” that was his appearance on Australian Idol and Corby is unrecognisable from the 16-year-old warbling Stevie Wonder covers in a soulless TV studio. Rainbow Valley is all soul, and all heart, and even the low-key songs have a sprawling majesty to them.

From the opening tracks, the album transitions to a D’Angelo-esque funk on the intro of “Get With the Times” ­– smooth gospel moans, light “plinks” on the piano, and some brief but essential twangs of an electric guitar. Corby, who performs pretty much every instrument on this album, is superb at misleading his listener. Just as “Knife Edge” was soft as anything, so “All Fired Up” is a beautifully tender love song that begs the subject: “Tell me that you’re coming home.”

With the title track, Corby closes with the sound of bird song and blissful harmonies mingling with the soft groove of the keyboard; a kick-drum and snare leads you out to the other side of the record. By the time you reach the end of Rainbow Valley, you don’t really want to leave.