Various Artists Truckload of Sky: The Lost Songs of David McComb Vol.

As singer-songwriter for The Triffids, David McComb wrote what is now considered one of the greatest Australian albums, Born Sandy Devotional (1986), but after the band''s breakup, labored in relative obscurity until his death in 1999. A Truckload of Sky: The Lost Songs of David McComb, vol. 1 (2020) was written by McComb before his untimely death and later recorded by friends and musical collaborators, including Graham Lee, Rob McComb, Romy Vager, Rob Snarski, Angie Hart, JP Shilo, Alex Gow, Simon Breed, and Lenore Stephens. This book examines the ways the album echoes McComb''s stylistic and thematic obsessions, including that which Glenn D''Cruz classifies as a "hauntological aesthetic," while generating important questions about the relationship between popular music and memory, time and death. Jacques Derrida''s concept of hauntology - the revisiting of social and cultural elements of the past - is used to unpack the album''s structure and composition. Alongside themes of ghosts, past lives, and haunting, the book discusses what, if any, ethical considerations can and should be made in the curation of the work and legacies of deceased artists.

About the author

Glenn D'Cruz is a Melbourne-based writer and filmmaker whose work spans theatre, film, and cultural theory. A former academic, he is the author of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (2018), Teaching Postdramatic Theatre (2018), and Hauntological Dramaturgy (2022)—a trio of books that explore the edges of performance, pedagogy, and spectral aesthetics. His short film Vanitas (2022), a reflection on migration, mortality and delayed grief, premiered at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival before being broadcast nationally on SBS television in Australia.

Product details

• Authors: Glenn D'Cruz
• Assisted by: Jon Dale (Editor), Jon Stratton (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 04.09.2025
• EAN: 9798765127469
• ISBN: 9798765127469
• No. of pages: 144
• Dimensions: 126 mm x 196 mm x 10 mm
• Series: 33 1/3 Oceania
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > Monographs; Rock & Pop music, Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, Perth, MUSIC / History & Criticism, MUSIC / Individual Composer & Musician, MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Rock, MUSIC / Philosophy & Social Aspects, World Music, History of Music, Music reviews & criticism, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Music reviews and criticism