Ross McLennan started his music career in Melbourne in the mid-1980s on bass guitar and vocals in a pop group, the Hybrid, alongside Peter Caffyn on trumpet, Phil Faiers on drums, Drew Nelson on saxophone and Rob Wolf on guitar and vocals.
[1] Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt they were, "Utilising a solid pop base, the band was able to lay catchy melodies, punky guitar riffs and blazing horn arrangements over the top.
[1] McLennan and Wolf formed an indie guitar pop trio, Snout, with Hugh Williams on drums.
[1] While that group was in hiatus in 1995, McLennan (as Ross Snout) formed a lo-fi duo, Meuscram, with his older brother, Lindsay (a.k.a.
[4] Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald observed that he, "still has the schnoz for a bittersweet pop gem... [it] can veer from utterly charming yet with a wicked heart, to sharply spiked, but with a soft, almost delicate centre.
[6] The Age's Jo Roberts compared it to his previous album, "[it] swims even deeper into fantastic labyrinthine worlds of singing strings, ghostly brass and fluid, visceral sounds that take on an almost filmic quality, especially when paired with McLennan's vivid, at times out-there lyrics.
Like Beck, Brian Wilson or Lambchop's Kurt Wagner, McLennan's musical vision is unimpeded by predictability or tradition.