It makes sense that Champion Trees‘ latest releases feel more like autumn than spring, since they’re now singing to us from the northern hemisphere. Before most of the band moved to England in early 2023, the band had a breakout two years surrounding the release of their debut album, NOW 3000, in July 2022. We gave the album a warmly appreciative review back then, praising its Western Cape sentimentality and heartening undercurrents. It should be no surprise then that we were very excited by the release of four new singles in anticipation of a full album, “I Wear a Shirt That Says Australia” , “I Want to Sound Like a Ghost” , “Gentle, Apple, Balanced”, and “Cabbage Song”.
These four singles are all longing, yearning songs, which is very much true to form for Champion Trees. What’s immediately striking is how the sound has matured and added new layers compared to their work on NOW 3000. The addition of new members — James Bickford-Smith on violin and synthesisers, Michael Burke on saxophone, and Michelle Hromin on clarinet — has brought textural depth to their arrangements.
“I Want to Sound Like a Ghost” showcases this evolution most clearly. While it can feel somewhat plodding as it starts, the track builds to a satisfying final third where Bickford-Smith’s violin glides alongside Francis Christie’s vocals, and Burke’s saxophone joins the rhythm section. The violin feels right at home in their sound, and the clarinet adds welcome colour. It’s a meta-textual piece about influence and artistic insecurity, inspired by Jonathan Richman’s “Velvet Underground” — a song about a song about a band.
“Gentle, Apple, Balanced” is faster-paced and shorter at two and a half minutes, but tonally quite similar. While the track has a satisfying section where the bass falls away to let the lyrics shine, it is otherwise on-brand and unremarkable. “Cabbage Song” is unique in this set by stripping things down to just vocals and one guitar, and gives you a chance to catch your breath between the busier arrangements of the other singles.
It is “I Wear a Shirt That Says Australia” that truly impresses. This song is gorgeous in a way that even their best previous work hadn’t achieved. Built on sparing strings and soothing saxophone, it creates a lush, intimate sound that perfectly serves its meditation on time’s gentle but ceaseless march and how we find ourselves changing along the way.
Both tracks sit on the slower, more melancholic side of things. Their music isn’t for every mood, but when it’s right, it makes for a truly intimate, candlelit experience. While these singles demonstrate Champion Trees’ growth as arrangers and musicians, one hopes their forthcoming album also includes more upbeat moments like those on NOW 3000. Their plain-spoken, incisive lyrics have always lent themselves to clever, funny moments that would complement this newfound sophistication.
We look forward to the release of the full album A Duck’s Water Off My Back on 20 November, and hold onto hope that we will get a performance on home soil in the new year.
HERO IMAGE: Left to right: Lex Pienaar (bass), Michael Burke (saxophone), Francis Christie (vocals, guitar), Michelle Hromin (clarinet), James Bickford-Smith (violin and synthesiser). Not pictured: Langa Dubazana, who remains in Cape Town.
