"Far Away"
Single by Wolfmother
from the album Cosmic Egg
B-side"Wuthering Heights" (live)
Released3 June 2010 (2010-06-03)
GenreHard rock, stoner rock, neo-psychedelia
Length4:01
LabelModular
Songwriter(s)Andrew Stockdale
Producer(s)Alan Moulder
Wolfmother singles chronology
"White Feather"
(2010) 		"Far Away"
(2010) 		"Victorious"
(2015)

"Far Away" is a song by Australian hard rock band Wolfmother, featured on their 2009 second studio album Cosmic Egg. Written by vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, the song was released as the fourth single from the album on 3 June 2010, backed with a live cover version of the Kate Bush song "Wuthering Heights".[1][2]

Style and reception

"Far Away" has been generally well received by critics. Writing for Spin, David Marchese reviewed the song thus:

Get your lighters out! If "In the Morning" was power-ballad-as-psychedelic-rainbow, then "Far Away" is its prom-friendly cousin. Over an almost delicate music box melody played on, I think, electric piano, [Andrew] Stockdale, in a relatively subdued voice, sings about the one that got away: "I believe that love is gonna last forever / But it's all within my mind." An acoustic guitar gently pads things out. The drums play a laidback shuffle. The bass shadows the guitar chords. A melodic major key guitar solo swoops in to guide the listener to Valhalla.[3]

English music magazine NME praised the song as "the only 'progress'" on the album, describing it as "sound[ing] like it was expelled by Axl Rose during an enema in early sessions for ‘Chinese Democracy’."[4] In revealing that the song would be released as the fourth single from Cosmic Egg, Australian news website Access All Areas described "Far Away" as "the hands aloft summit of Wolfmother's colossal second album," adding that it is "Wolfmother's sitting on the porch torch song, an epic slice of melancholic keys and searing guitar that sounds like a big ole bag of all-time good times."[5]

Music video

On 23 February 2010, bassist and keyboardist Ian Peres uploaded a number of photos from the recording of a music video for "Far Away" onto his Facebook profile, in an album titled "Farrah Weigh".[6] On 5 March more photos were uploaded onto the official Wolfmother website, while a news post revealed that the video was directed by Sam Stephens of direction team Hydra, known for the videos for Passion Pit's "The Reeling" and Muse's "Uprising".[7] The video, which record label Modular Recordings described as "old timey and 'reflective'",[8] debuted on Wolfmother's Vevo channel on YouTube on 9 April 2010, and was credited as being directed by Hydra.[9]

Personnel

References

  1. ^ "Far Away". Wolfmother. Archived from the original on 7 May 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  2. ^ "Far Away - Single by Wolfmother". iTunes. January 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  3. ^ David Marchese (4 August 2009). "First Listen: Wolfmother's New Album". Spin. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  4. ^ Luke Patton (26 October 2009). "Album review: Wolfmother - 'Cosmic Egg' (Modular)". NME. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  5. ^ "Wolfmother to give free Sydney show!". Access All Areas. 4 February 2010. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  6. ^ "Ian Peres's Photos - Farrah Weigh". Facebook. 23 February 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
  7. ^ "Some Photos from the Wolfmother Far Away Videoshoot". Wolfmother. 5 March 2010. Archived from the original on 9 March 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
  8. ^ "Gallery: Wolfmother, "Far Away" Video Shoot, Sydney, 24/02/2010". Modular Recordings. 24 February 2010. Archived from the original on 29 May 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
  9. ^ ""Far Away" Video Premiere". Wolfmother. 8 April 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2010.[permanent dead link]
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