The Tender Trap (2003) – David Bridie

We are treated to another understated gem from Australian singer-songwriter David Bridie. The Tender Trap comes from one of my favourite Australian albums Hotel Radio (image inset). It is one of Bridie’s most fragile and intimate songs – its mood, as the title suggests, gently enfolds the listener, much like the couples gliding across the ballroom floor in the accompanying video.

Bridie himself remarked that on Hotel Radio he was keen to experiment sonically – trying different microphones and vocal techniques. On Tender Trap, he sings with a hushed softness, as if sharing a secret with the listener – deliberately retreating from the foreground to create space and atmosphere.

Bridie’s voice here feels like a beacon – flickering across the Sargasso Sea, which he references in both the opening and closing lines of the song. It’s the only sea in the world without shores, adrift within the gyres of the Atlantic – a fitting symbol for the emotional dislocation and quiet yearning that permeates the track. His voice seems to call out across this borderless expanse to those lost in despair, urging them to surrender to the sacred pull of love, connection, and solace.

Bridie recalled the making of Hotel Radio in an interview with Tomatrax, an online music magazine:

“Because the recording gear is quite mobile, the computer and the pro-tools, you can pack up into a couple of station wagons. We went up to a house in rural Victoria for a little bit. We were kinda writing as we went in some cases and there were other songs that I had written at home. We went up to the country with Nick Littlemore for a couple of weeks and then would let it sit for a couple of months and then go to my studio at home. Doing it in segments was good because you could evaluate what you’ve done, let it rest for a while, have a listen and think ‘okay I need to fix this’ or ‘this is working and that’s not.’ It took over a year to get done and I quite like that timing, that pace. I quite like recording in different locations. I like getting away from the sterility of recording studios so going out and setting up in a house that has a pretty nice view out the window. It is a good way of spending time and I think having a good experience when making a record leads to a good record.”

Much of Bridie’s work is still shrouded in obscurity, usually finding its way out when the singer occasionally tours his material. Despite his profound influence on the Australian music industry and the composition of soundtrack music, with credits for over 100 feature films he is hardly a household name. David Bridie’s musical career also includes heading the bands Not Drowning, Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake both whose music has featured here, especially the latter. I’ve always considered him musically Australia’s best kept secret. Even Hotel Radio, with its earthy, breezy Australian sound – evoking the kind of atmosphere you’d find in a Tim Winton novel – doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page.

The Tender Trap

Dive into the tender trap by the wild sagasso sea
By the wild sagasso sea
The factory orange sky alight burning with possibilities all night
It’s only when the darkness falls maybe you will come to me
Maybe you will come for me somehow
Fall into the tender trap
In the early afternoon, when the light is bleached and ruined
Come when the quiet night rolls in
We’ll move amongst the buildings, parks and bars
The buildings, parks and bars
Its only when the darkness falls
That maybe you will come for me
Maybe you will come for me somehow
Come into the tender trap I’ll wait for you in my sleep
Wait patiently in my sleep
For only there is quiet and warm
With nothing to disturb us there no alarm
It’s only when this darkness falls
Maybe you will come to me, maybe you will come for me
It’s only when the darkness falls
In the wild sargasso sea maybe you will come for me somehow? somehow?

References:
1. Interview with David Bridie – Tomatrax online music magazine

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“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand