"P Rock" rock rock

This single is tough to rate. The first song from the upcoming Powderfinger album "Vulture Street" is of course "On My Mind". The tune is overall not up to par with Powderfinger's past ROCK material. On the album, this song will be called "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" instead. It's supposedly written about lead singer Bernard Fanning's brother who passed away over a year ago. The lyrics really don't point to it being written about his brother though and overall, the lyrics don't say much. Very generic lyrics of "Baby I got you on my mind / Honey you won't ever know / How much I need you by my side / Promise you won't ever go / I won't take no from you this time / Cuz baby I got you on my mind..." and so on. Not much to say, although Bernard's vocals are on as always and the drumming of Jon Coghill here are unbelievable as ever. Without a doubt one of the best drummers in the world here in Cogsy.

Anyway, although the first song is a bit too much of trying to be "rock" in an AC/DC-type way, the b-sides here are worth the purchase. "Sweetness (band room demo)" and "This Song Has Gone To Hell (band room demo)" are excellent rockers. The lyrics here are superb and they're just a lot of fun to listen to. "No matter what you do /We're the same! / We're the same!" Bernard screams. "No matter who you tell / This world has gone to hell."

The other negative part of the single is the second helping of "On My Mind". Here, PF gives us the demo version of the single. This version is decent and somewhat fun to listen to with wild backing vocals and a different ending. But the laziness of the entire production of this one demo kind of sets the song off. The vocals are behind almost all the time, etc. It still shows off the recording process I suppose, which is nice and certainly make for a better cd single than just two b-sides would have.

Overall you should pick this up. It's not their best single ever, but it comes in a digipak with beautiful, psychedelic artwork. Gotta love the digipaks!

Hopefully "Vulture Street" will rock harder than this first offering from the new disc suggests. "On My Mind" is a decent song but it just doesn't hit the spot as a PF rocker should. Despite all this, I give it 4 stars due to the good new b-sides, okay-ness of "On My Mind" and the single's amazing packaging work. BUY IT and support an excellent band.