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Cold Chisel are an Australian band who split in 1983, but have been reforming for shows together in recent years. They're a rock band, considered passe by some, but great by others. I'm in the latter camp... as you're about to discover...

East is Cold Chisel's 3rd studio album, released in 1980. This is the first album that features song writing contributions from all band members - although most of the songs are still written by keyboard player Don Walker. This album won 9 awards at the annual Australian rock music awards, where the band played lived and smashed up their equipment and the set as a protest against the show's main sponsor's superficial "involvement" in the music industry. East is probably Cold Chisel's most highly awarded original album, and rightly so...

The album begins with Standing On The Outside, one of several Don Walker classics on the album - with piano and guitar pumping out a great rhythm, this is a solid opening, with lead singer Jimmy Barnes on vocals. Next comes Never Before, written and sung by guitarist Ian Moss. I don't think I truly understood this song until I saw Moss perform it, filled with Hendrix-style guitar playing, in about 1990 - now I hear that every time I listen to the song and it is very special. Further in, Barnes' straight ahead rocker Rising Sun sits alongside Phil Small's pop classic My Baby. Apart from Steve Prestwich's contribution Best Kept Lies somewhere in the middle, the album then heads through a stream of Don Walker's best compositions, before finishing strongly with another Barnes' rocker My Turn To Cry. This is a band at its peak: great songwriting, song selection, performance and production.

The performances are somehow much stronger and more consistent than Cold Chisel's previous album Breakfast at Sweethearts. I think that on East the band, and possibly the producer, managed to find the right formula for performing Don Walker's piano-rooted ballads, and mixing them with powerful performances of faster songs that feature just the right balance of vocals, guitar and piano. The mix of songwriters definitely helps to keep things fresh, but I think the big improvement on this album is that the members of Cold Chisel became truly confident in their musical abilities. At this this point they had the musical maturity to push the songs hard but still retain enough control to be able to make a well produced studio album. The lead instruments of Barnes' voice, Moss' guitar and Walker's keyboards are in fine form, sitting in front of Small and Prestwich's tight rhythm section. Moss' vocals are also strong, taking the lead on 3 songs - interestingly these are the only songs not written by Barnes or Walker: Never Before, My Baby and Best Kept Lies.

Album highlights? There are quite a few different types of songs on this album, making it hard to compare them. While Never Before continues to impress me the more I hear it, and Barnes' 2 rockers appeal to my desire to have my head beaten by loud music, I'm a sucker for Walker's ballad Four Walls. Despite all of this, the tracks that impress me most are 2 of Don Walker's less mellow contributions: Star Hotel and Tomorrow - Barnes on vocals and Moss on guitar, each displaying power and versatility in a way that has rarely been matched...

The double-live album Swingshift, which followed this one, provides less restrained versions of many of the songs from East - some of the songs are pushed further, as is more acceptable in live performances. For this reason, I often listen to the live album instead. However, listening to East today has been a reminder of what a remarkable album Cold Chisel made in 1980... and that I should listen to the songs in this form more often.