Rolf Harris is, in some cringey way, the Australian everyman. He’s got the John Howard eyebrows, the Sydney Opera House teeth and a voice with a two note range. Not that he’s ever let that stop him, and with the release of ‘Sing-along with Rolf Harris’ the legacy continues.
The album, released just in time for Christmas, is an accumulation of classic Rolf Harris tunes accumulating in one spot, like old mates getting together for a beer, some womanising and a couple of racist jokes.
What can really be said about Rolf? What you see is what you get. The album is one cheesy pop hook after another, which Rolf meanders jovially over with musings about farming and the blazing sun. The production is simple and clean, and the instrumentation is solid, if not slightly gimmicky (does every song really need a wobble board solo?).
Essentially ‘Sing Along With Rolf Harris’ is a novelty-album. Unfortunately, it seems like Rolf isn’t quite in on the joke. He’s like an excitable 10 year old boy, coaxed along to play with his older brothers only to be pushed out of the tree-house and laughed at. If ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’ is Rolf entering the tree-house, the cover of ‘I Feel Good’ is little Rolfey hitting the ground hard.
The likeliness, however, of Rolf Harris tumbling into anything but money, is quite unlikely. The joke really is on us.
-Tom Webster
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