By his seventh studio album, Xavier Rudd was well established as an Australian treasure. But on 2012’s Spirit Bird, the Torquay-born multi-instrumentalist was in a slightly different head space. Part of that was down to major nerve pain in his back prior to surgery, but his personal connection to the land and its inhabitants seems deeper than ever here. “Comfortable in My Skin” tackles the first preoccupation, as the lifelong surfer attempts to deal with an inability to move around, but it’s the second that permeates the majority of this album. Although Rudd recorded most of Spirit Bird in Ontario, it’s a deeply Antipodean (and avian) experience, from the opening bird calls through the red-tailed black cockatoo referenced in the title track to the closing “Creating a Dream,” where Rudd offers his own take on John Lennon’s “Imagine.” The socially conscious lyrics are undergirded by an array of instruments—including yidaki and harmonica—and leave you in no doubt as to the man’s opinion on how Indigenous people and their sacred sites have been treated. From here, 2015’s Nanna delved even deeper into themes of racism, intolerance, and the need to bridge gaps between cultures.