Eden Mulholland: Hunted Haunted - review

It’s obvious Eden Mulholland is spectacularly uninterested in being the coolest guy in the room. I mean, he once helmed Motocade, a popular Auckland band that never made it on to anyone’s hip lists. Unlike his similarly gifted brother Joel, however, Eden has managed to forge a distinctive character sound on his two solo albums.

Hunted Haunted finds the now Melbourne-based singer-writer-multi-instrumentalist collaborating with American producers on a set of tunes that impresses on nearly every level: the choruses are melodic earworms, Mulholland’s vocals mould themselves to the (invariably passionate) requirements of individual scenarios and the arrangements assert themselves with vigour.

For all that, I don’t like it much. Perhaps it’s the dramatic grandeur of the performances that grates, like it’s pre-pitched to arena-sized crowds. Or maybe it’s the melodies themselves, which all go to exactly the places they’re supposed to, so you can sing along in no time at all.

Hunted Haunted is a skilful exposition of commercial pop/rock, but I want hidden depths, and just a slight sense of discovery. Is that too much to ask?