Dick Diver - Calendar Days

Dick Diver occupy the mid-spot between fellow Melburnians Lower Plenty's downbeat, countrified melancholy and Boomgates' suburban pop anthems.

There's common musical ground between all these bands (if you love one, you'll love the other) and in Dick Diver there's also something of The Triffids' bleak Raining Pleasure and The Tender Engines' domestic vignettes. Essentially, they've played Spring Hill Fair a lot more than other Go-Betweens albums.

There's common ground, too, between Dick Diver and Boomgates in Steph Hughes, who owns every song she sings in those bands. She reminds me of Tracey Thorn's deadpan romance and Emma Kupa's keening cry. Calendar Days isn't any kind of departure from debut album New Start Again, but it is even more quietly confident and that little bit better at making the ordinary sound extraordinary.