Alexander Gow made his name as the alternately wry and sensitive songwriter of Melbourne act Oh Mercy, giving little indication of the left turn he would take on 2012’s Deep Heat. Embracing the lusty strut and smarmy confidence of glam rock, Gow re-imagines himself as a droll lounge lizard on this third album, named after a warming cream for muscle aches. Teaming up with producer Burke Reid, who had famously captured the rawness of The Drones on record, Gow evokes themes of fevered excess in both the lyrics and the arrangements—not to mention the album cover’s striking shot from the thick of Brazil’s Rio Carnival. Gow’s usually tender voice cracks and prowls on the T. Rex-esque title track, while “My Man” pays open tribute to the gliding sax hook of Roxy Music’s “Love Is the Drug”. The humid party vibe doesn’t stop there: Gow detours into silky falsetto for the loverman come-ons of “Drums” and holds court over a slinking dub rhythm on “Still Making Me Pay”. He may have returned to more subdued, writerly observations for Oh Mercy albums after this, but Deep Heat foreshadowed the sultry dance-floor pulse of Gow’s follow-up project, Perfect Moment.