My self-care routine includes I have to listen to “Down by the Sea” off the Business as Usual album by Men at Work at least once a month.
It’s is echoing, lonely, quiet, still and chill. It has a stony, hypnotic feel. It’s like a giant granite Buddha that gathers all my stress into a ball and flicks it away. It slows time.
And because it’s a little gem of a B-side, too long and with too much of a slow-build for radio airplay, it’s lesser known. So listening to “Down by the Sea” feels like hearing a delicious secret.
I’m whispering it to you. Are you ready to wade into the languor of meandering guitar, while another guitar jangles in a way that puts me in mind of the way the afternoon sun spangles light on the water.
We’ve got a saxophone that speaks only when it has something to say, a restrained seduction. It’s played by Greg Ham, whom I just learned also plays flute, organ, piano, and synthesizer. And now I’m wondering if he’s responsible for the flute-like riff that helps makes “Land Down Under” so captivating.
Drummer Jerry Speiser further weaves the song’s seaside narrative, always waiting till the last minute to crash the wave.
And then there’s Colin Hay’s voice, with a vibrato like a wind instrument. His accent and annunciation are hard to place. He has the voice of a man who’s traveled from the Antipodes to the Caribbean and back, getting shipwrecked twice on the way.
He’s lived to tell the tale, and he’s in no hurry to finish.
–Sarah Torribio
Listen to more songs of the day HERE
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