By Wilfred Brandt of Two Thousand

“Watching Sister Jane at the Annandale a few weeks ago, I got that rare, self-satisfied feeling of getting more than I’d paid for: a band at a small venue who play with enough enthusiasm and talent to reach the back rows of the largest rock barns.

Sister Jane have been around a few years, and this debut full-length fulfills the promise of their infrequent past live shows - great, catchy, 60s blues psych roadhouse rock. The band sound like a lost classic rock album from the 70s you’ve only just discovered. Particular passages amidst the cool ooze of tunes remind me of Black Mountain, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Asteroid Number 4, orBelles Will Ring (not surprisingly, since Sister Jane shares several of the last’s band members).

Some of the classic rock cliches herein get a bit cheesy (“see the dark-ness / it’s gonna turn into the light”), but you can’t hold it against a band this charming and down to earth. Make sure to catch them live.”

Be Kind EP INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Thanks to Duncan Idaho of the BRAG MAG

“New bands are often compared to existing ones to give potential listeners a frame of reference, so let’s get this out of the way. With the debut EP from Sydney’s Sister Jane, you’ll hear the elegance of well-crafted Byrds songs coupled with the heady, pulsing Americana of a Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell collaboration.

But the most important thing to mention here isn’t who they’re influenced by, but how well they do it; Sister Jane’s songs match the strength and power of the artists that came before them. But with a band made up of three members of Belles Will Ring, and led by Dan Davey’s dreamy vocals, that’s hardly a surprise.

As a whole, the EP is familiar and comforting, like putting on a warm jumper on a cold day. The chorus of the opener and title track tells us to “be kind”; there’s little to do but recline in its splendour from the outset.

The band has a deep pool of talent, and the sound they’ve laid down indicates that they could go in a number of directions from here. With Be Kind they’ve gone for haze and jangle, but there’s little doubt that Sister Jane also possess a reservoir of danger. They could easily go into the mind-bending psychedelic business, and push listeners into places they rarely venture; the outer suburbs of the soul, perhaps. In their female vocalist especially, they show a real firepower; every time Lauren Crew’s purr pushes its way through the shuffling guitar jangle, a crawling thrill shakes the nerves. I expect she’s ruined a few young men with that voice of hers…

Be Kind is an excellent debut, which finds Sister Jane pushing into the league of some very great bands.