Devastations

Yes, U
Beggars Banquet / Remote Control, 2007

The move to Europe is as much a part of the Australian rock 'n' roll story as the stretch of highway between Melbourne and Sydney. For the Devastations, it was a chapter that had been written too many times before. Their second album Coal was overshadowed by comparisons to expatriate icon Nick Cave and eager questions about living in Berlin. It wasn't until Yes, U that they broke away from the history and found their own identity.

Yes, U is one of those poncy art-rock records that takes a while to "grow" on you. On the first listen it sounds like a collection of aimless electronic pop tracks punctuated by two thumping rock songs, 'Rosa' and 'Mistakes'. Part of the appeal is hearing it change with each spin, as the minimal electronic-based songs unfold into odysseys. The effect is like looking at a patch of empty space and then discovering that you're actually staring into a black hole. The seductive opening pair 'Black Ice' and 'Oh Me, Oh My' sound as if they've fallen from another planet and landed on a record. Some critics have argued the album's darkness is a reflection of Berlin – if Yes, U was in fact a city, it would be located on an outer-space satellite sometime in the future and have more strip clubs than Kings Cross.

Yes, U is a collection of love songs, but one with a curious idea of what love is. It can be sexy and redemptive, but also something very dark. It is what brings the narrator of 'Oh Me, Oh My' to life and then leads them back to death. It is the motive behind a string of letters left for an estranged lover by a sinister down-and-outer in 'The Pest': "I've waited so long that whoever loved you is gone/ So things will be different from now on... You'd make a beautiful wife/ Have I made myself clear?" Love is painted as lustful and creepy, and it is captured so perfectly that listening to the album can make your thighs twitch. I like to think of Yes, U as a challenge to other Australian bands - if you're going to fuck off to Berlin for a while, you'd better come back with something as good as this.

This column is the last in a three-week series covering the best local releases of the year.