Sweet Talk - Switch On (2025) Hi-Res

The Melbourne ensemble pour their hearts into Southern rock.
Sweet Talk may hail from Australia, but they bask in the classic rock and country of the American South. The Melbourne six-piece radiates exactly such down-home warmth on this debut album, from gospel harmonies on “Millers Bay” and synchronized guitar leads on “Stoned in Texas, Queensland” to Skynyrd-style licks opening “Hurricane.” No wonder the band has already earned co-signs from the likes of Kasey Chambers and The Whitlams’ Tim Freedman. But there’s more to Switch On than just heartfelt homage: soulful vocalist Tane Walker proves himself to be an expert at both vulnerable ballads and winking romps. Of the former, “Six O’Clock Swill” finds wistful romance in the bygone ritual of Australians swarming to the bar before it closed for the evening, and “For All that I’ve Won” paints a convincing portrait of the unmoored loneliness of touring life. As for the latter category, “Repo Man” shows off a smoother side of Sweet Talk’s vintage 1970s influences as Walker expounds the dangers (and temptations) of overextending oneself with the wayward wisdom of someone who has.