Al Stewart
Modern Times

THE REVIEW

Welcome back, dear friends of DeBaser, after a necessary break, I resume with renewed vigor my examination of the artistic journey of Alastair Ian Stewart, which I had interrupted right at its peak, namely the beginning of his golden years, marked by a wonderful and unfortunately underrated album like "Past, Present And Future". From a strictly commercial point of view and also according to many critics, the true consecration occurs instead two years later with his sixth studio album, which is "Modern Times". However, from my personal perspective, it is the most "weak" record release, so to speak, of the Al Stewart period 1973-1980. Compared to an eclectic, grandiose album overflowing with fascinating historical references like its predecessor PP&F, enriched by refined and charming ballads such as "Old Admirals" and "Last Days Of June 1934" and majestic musical paintings like "Nostradamus" and especially "Roads To Moscow", in my opinion, the highest point ever reached by Stewart as a storyteller, "Modern Times" appears generally more opaque and subdued, dominated by more nuanced and reflective sounds and atmospheres, at times slightly bitter.

The troubled and exemplary blues rock of "Carol" is the perfect example of a more introspective and almost existential songwriting that dominates almost the entire album, also noticeable in "What's Going On", in the melancholic ballad "Not The One", in the rhythmically smoky arpeggios of "Next Time", which seems to return to the musical simplicity of "Zero She Flies", with a more severe and reflective approach and also in the orchestrations (curated by producer Alan Parsons) of the long and sinuous title track, which brings back melancholic adolescent memories in what almost seems like a hymn to nostalgia, with a subtle charm and, depending on the moments, more or less perceptible, a statement that constitutes the very essence of the album, namely an accessibility and appeal strongly conditioned by particular moods, sometimes a strength, many others a limitation.

At least initially, the only two "lively" episodes capture the listener's attention: the brilliant homage to science fiction literature in "Sirens Of Titan", an engaging and visionary uptempo folk that somewhat covers the same role that "Warren Harding" had in "Past, Present And Future" and especially a grand instant classic like "Apple Cider Re-Construction", an enthusiastic and lively country rock that smells of America, of freedom, and of long journeys across prairies and sun-drenched highways, with the wind in your hair and the roar of a Harley-Davidson twin-cylinder, a great homage to a counterculture that became a legend as a precursor to a great affinity with US-oriented atmospheres destined to continue in "Year Of The Cat" and even in the recent "A Beach Full Of Shells" and "Sparks Of Ancient Light". The quintessence of "Modern Times", the song that best represents it is undoubtedly "The Dark And The Rolling Sea", velvety and soothing, almost comforting despite the intrinsic pessimism of the song, a delicate accordion, elegant guitar phrasings, and a calm voice that sings a beautiful poem, a perfect paradigm of the fragility of life: "Oh you set your course for the furthest shore and you never once looked back, and the flag you flew was a pirate cross on a field of velvet black, and those landsmen who you but lately knew were left stranded on the lea, don't call on them when the storm clouds rise on the dark and the rolling sea".

In summary, the eight songs that compose "Modern Times" form an album of great songwriting depth, something Al Stewart had already attempted three years earlier with "Orange", an album overall much less "focused" and successful than this but capable of reaching great peaks of pathos; as far as I am concerned, the absence of the storytelling component, perfectly elaborated with PP&F and a hallmark of this artist, weighs heavily in the final judgment, which in my eyes makes it an interlude, a transitional episode between the great album of 1973 and the sumptuous trilogy that will follow, managing to harmoniously coexist with refined reflection and history.