MARTIN FRAWLEY - Undone At 31

"...Poor Martin Frawley. He broke up with his long-time girlfriend, Jules MacFarlane, after eight years, which also put him out of a job, since the two of them founded and co-led the angsty, jangly Melbourne band Twerps. He’s also evidently broken the 3-0 barrier, a classic, nearly stereotypical age for soul-searching, progress-measuring and feelings of inadequacy in any business, let alone one as exposed and emotionally on display as songwriting. But good news, Frawley has made lemonade, squeezing out the sour juices of life into a lovely, acid-tipped, unassuming but quite refreshing solo record, Undone at 31.  

The disc is spare and intimate, the words like a conversation, the music subtle and mostly acoustic, guitar, piano, a few synths, bass and drums. Frawley is backed by Stewart Bronaugh, a sometime member of Angel Olsen’s band who plays in Lionlimb with Joshua Jaeger, as well as Angus Lord from Twerps on bass and Matt Harkin (of the Stephens) on drums...And yet it feels like it’s mostly him alone, sitting in a room, working things out in song and drink.Undone at 31 is a charmingly bare, personal album that transmutes personal upheaval into unaffected art. Let’s hope Frawley doesn’t have to write another like this any time soon, but we can enjoy the one we have." - Dusted