4 stars out of 5

by Shaun Carney - Australian Rolling Stone, September 1994 (issue #500

There are few of Cummings trademark pre-midlife crisis musings. Indeed on this album's penultimate cut, above a cloud of Kilbey inspired atmospherics, Cummings looks back: "I was so full of insecurities, I wanted to scream or shout/Hey, but what was there to worry about?" Sonically, too, the unadorned "traditional" soft-rock arrangements that characterised 1992's Unguided Tour - and conferred upon that album an occasional dreary worthiness - have been overlayed with a range of voice treatments, echo effects and mild electronics. Many songs conclude with little synthesised codas, added touches that underline Cummings' extra sense of adventure on Falling Swinger.

Although this album represents the shock of the new for Cummings, it also contains a whiff of the old-fashioned. It's varied, not based around any obvious singles, and thanks to the Kilbey-Cummings collaboration, carries a depth and sense of wholeness. There's even a move into the weird: Kilbey's "September 13" is a standard-issue Church song except that Cummings, not Kilbey, is doing the singing.

Cummings relies less on percussion and rhythm here than ever before and songs such as the near-formless "Sliding Across A Blue Highway" and "Wish the Show Was Over" rely on his narrative powers. The latter is probably the most unusual song Cummings has written, a near-spoken retelling of a frustrating conversation with his infirm mother that boasts an arrangement amply reflecting the tension inherent in intra-family conversations. Cummings has, during the past 10 years, made several truly great, if underappreciated, albums. This could well be his best.

by Jon Casimir - The Sydney Morning Herald, 1994

Produced by the Church's Steve Kilbey, it displays a revitalised, refocused and realigned Cummings, bursting with creativity (it may also be the best album Kilbey has ever made).

Cummings sounds more relaxed and confident than ever, his breathy, slightly husky tones caressing the work of a group of musicians which includes long-time collaborator Shane O'Mara, Grant McLennan, Chris Abrahams, Kilbey, Bill McDonald and Tim Powell.

The 13 tracks range from the crystalline simplicity of What Was There To Worry About, God Knows and 100 Different Ways to full production numbers such as The Big Room and Sliding Across A Blue Highway.

Very much an album of understatement and gradual revelation, it keeps everything pretty much at mid-tempo, which allows a consistency of tone that, thanks to the imaginative instrumentation and atmospheric effects, never becomes dull.

Almost every song functions on more than one level, with sonic subtexts and undercurrents waiting to be discovered on repeated listenings. And isn't it nice these days to find an album that isn't exhausted of interest within a week?

The real success of the venture is that, in presenting the songwriting and singing of Cummings in a new light, it has expanded his strengths rather than abandoned them.

Previously, on albums such as Good Humour, his excursions took him out of sight of what has made Lovetown and A New Kind Of Blue important works in the mid '80s.

Here, the Cummings hallmarks are carefully integrated - thus, the sensual groove of As I Rise works effortlessly next to the more traditional piano base of Fell From A Great Height.

Even September 13, a Kilbey composition which sounds remarkably like a Church track, give or take the Miles Davis soundalike muted trumpet, sits perfectly in place. Early copies offer a free seven track live CD as well.

© Jon Casimir - reprinted with permission

by ??????? - Drum Media (Sydney), 1994

anyone have the full review?

by ??????? - Green Guide (The Age), 1994

anyone have the full review?

4 1/2 stars out of 5

by ?Toby Creswell? - Juice magazine, 1994

anyone have the full review?

by David Gilliver - from "Interpellator", CSU-Mitchell student newspaper.

If that album was his music standing naked, then Falling Swinger is an album all dressed up and ready to go places. Steve Kilbey of The Church has taken charge of the production duties and the Cummings sound has never sounded so strong or confident.

The opening track The Big Room is an excellent example of the extent of these changes. The sound is unmistakeably big, driven by a rock solid beat, and fleshed out by insistent backing vocals and chiming guitars within a dense sonic backdrop. Over the top of it all, Cummings delivers his usual smooth and impeccable vocals.

Whereas the quality of Unguided Tour was derived from its subtle beauty, this album boasts both excellent production and thoughtful songwriting and performances, a combination that results in several great songs. These include the noble Fell From A Great Height (which Toni Childs has recently recorded), the tension filled I Wish The Show Was Over and the reflective mood of Days Chasing Days.

His traditional pop approach is not abandoned entirely. A number of songs are exactly what one has come to expect from Cummings, but Kilbey has embellished them with a variety of vocal effects and sounds, simultaneously enlarging the sound and retaining its delicacy.

The new production style, although admirable, is potentially dangerous for the idiosyncratic Cummings. It's great to hear Cummings pushing himself into new musical areas, but in doing so he risks losing the sure ground he stood on when rattling off his sometimes oblique lyrics. Part of his magic has always been his ability to lull the listener into the type of song they'd grown to know and love, while peppering it with odd and unsettling lyrics to make it distinctly his own.

He does this most noticeably in White Noise, a piece of pop heaven if ever I've heard it. The chorus is big and full of harmonies, the music predictably solid and as the song closes Cummings decides to croon "let's take a break for a television commercial" a few times. It's a sublime touch, simultaneously absurd and stylish. One can't help think it would all fall flat if the sound of the song wasn't so straightforward, but fortunately each track on this album has been given the production that the material deserves.

Some songs here won't jump out at the listener, but in the context of the album they are crucial inclusions (except perhaps the Kilbey-penned September 13). Although it is not quite the masterpiece that his past work has promised, it's as close as any in the Cummings catalogue. With the bonus CD of live-in-the-studio tracks, this is an exceptional purchase.

by Dino Scatena - "100 essential Australian Albums", Australian Rolling Stone, September 1997 (issue #539)

from "Culture Vulture" column in The Australian magazine, May 26-27 2001