"...And the Horse You Rode In On"

As if in response to the hard edge of Speedboats for Breakfast, James Reyne assembled some of his best catalog selections for acoustic reworkings on And the Horse You Rode in On. The songs are produced in such a way as to spotlight his inimitable voice. Most of the songs are done strictly acoustically — with just Reyne and a guitar — though some are given different arrangements ("One More River" has been given an almost reggae beat, while "Any Day Above Ground" has an ironically funereal dirge about it). There are a couple of new tracks ("The Euphonious Whale," "How to Make Gravy") and a smattering of reworked hits ("Hammerhead," "Reckless," "Errol") reaching back to Reyne's days with Australian Crawl. This fascinating reimagining of a fantastic catalog of songs nicely reconnects with an artist who had entered the new century with the aggressiveness of Speedboats for Breakfast. Not your typical hits record, And the Horse You Rode in On is all the more entertaining for it. Reyne would release a second volume of acoustic reworkings with Ghost Ships two years later.