During 2021 and 2022, Australian singer-songwriter Liz Stringer played to the sort of crowds some would say she had always deserved. Arenas of loud, passionate fans, 10,000 or more at a time, baying every last line back at her. Unfortunately, they weren’t her words: Stringer had been employed as a backing singer for Midnight Oil, as that band’s storied career finally drew to a close.
It helped cement Stringer’s reputation as a musician’s musician – someone other musicians admire and want to play with, rather than a star in her own right. Approaching the third decade of her career, she remains beloved by community radio, adored by a cult fanbase and all but ignored by the mainstream. The Second High, her seventh album, probably won’t change any of that, and that is a reflection on the myopia, ageism and sexism of the music industry.
But it’s also fair to say that while The Second High fits squarely into what used to be called adult contemporary, it is not exactly easy listening, either. Recorded in the UK with award-winning producer Beni Giles, the album presents polished, densely melodic, lush music, with Stringer’s vocals front and centre. From a rich lower register, she can vault into space or layer ambitious higher harmonies and counter-melodies.
It begins with a declaration of independence. Coming Home, the first single, is about embracing single life after you’ve come to terms with yourself. It’s glorious, led by a strident, upbeat piano line and underpinned by a restless rhythmic shuffle. At a generous five minutes, though, it’s seemingly unconcerned with wider radio play. At this stage of her career, perhaps Stringer doesn’t need to be.
The six-minute On the Level is more evidence that Stringer is happy to let these 10 songs run their natural course. A kiss-off to the kind of fraud who only wants to know you when others start paying attention, it features a long, jazzy coda with Stringer scatting over the top. It’s a throwback to the sophisticated early 80s pop of Joe Jackson and the quiet storm of Sade – no place for those with short attention spans.
It’s also no place for the faint-hearted. Criminal is an excoriation of inequality in a country where poverty can now land you in jail: “My existence is an anchor on the yacht that they’re sailing / Their passage now relies on the rest of us failing,” Stringer sings. It’s followed by Anger, a much more personal discovery of betrayal, but these two big piano ballads in the middle of the record slow The Second High’s momentum.
This is an album for patient and attentive listeners. Intelligent and assured, it can be enjoyed either in the background or up close and personal. And Stringer has never been more comfortable in her own skin - or talent: furthering the theme of independence and self-empowerment, I’ll Never Abandon Myself Again is the most straightforward, driving song here. It’s the work of a singular artist, happy way out on her own limb.
The Second High is out now (Dot Dash/Remote Control Records)
