Custard - Come Back, All Is Forgiven

Come Back All Is Forgiven is the sixth studio album by Australian indie rock band Custard, released in February 2015 by ABC Music.

It seemed veteran Brisbane outfit and favourite jokers Custard had long since called it a day. Following on from their dissolving in 1999 it was most surprising to see them reforming to play a small number of gigs ten years later. Fans jumped for joy when the band announced their first album in 16 years Come Back All Is Forgiven. 

The songs they’ve have returned with are strong. There’s no reinvention however, it pretty much sticks to the Custard template of years before. What's changed is that everyone has gotten older: there's a bit of good old middle-aged indifference, as opposed to mid to late twenties style indifference.

This is especially present in songs such as “We Are The Parents Our Parents Warned Us About” and “Contemporary Art”. The latter is a song that drops hilarious lines about contemporary art like “Contemporary Art/Old Fashioned Business” and “It’s a shape it’s distorted/the price is very very important”. Would the younger Custard have approached this with the same clarity?

Furthermore, there is a strong dose of sentimentality that runs through this release, in the sound and in the snapshot lyrics. In fact the Toowoomba Range, Queensland University, Spring Hill all get mentions. None of the humour of yesteryear is gone either. The charm of Custard is that everything feels kind of effortless and done on the spot.  Come Back All Is Forgiven is Custard and it’s untamed. Great to have them back.

Check out the tracks: “We Are The Parents (Our Parents Warned Us About)” and “Rice & Beans”. 

This LP record is on 180 gram premium audiophile vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve, pressed in Germany.