Jonathan Wilson
Rare Birds

Three to four years ago, after the release of "Fanfare," I went to hear Jonathan Wilson at the Auditorium in Rome: it doesn't happen as often as it might seem (alright, this wasn't the only time...), but shortly after the start of the concert, I sank into the seat and fell asleep. I don't think I've ever witnessed something so boring. Surely, the album itself wasn't particularly exciting, but the live performance was even worse. So I approached listening to this latest album with some skepticism, mainly driven by the significant attention given by most Italian and international webzines, and what I can say is that my doubts were justified because honestly, this album is really ugly.

Released last March 2nd, "Rare Birds" is the third LP on Bella Union by composer, musician, and influential producer Jonathan Wilson. Born in 1974 in Forest City, North Carolina, Wilson has become one of the most attended and sought-after musicians and producers in a specific background of the contemporary American and international music scene, particularly since 2011 (after the release of "Gentle Spirit"). So much so that Roger Waters wanted him on his latest tour. He is particularly credited with the great success of J. Tillman aka Father John Misty, whose releases with this moniker have all been curated by Wilson himself. J. Tillman is also among the many guests on the album, which also includes (among others) Jessica Wolfe and pop starlet Lana Del Rey.

In my opinion, there's not much to say about this album overall. After all, "Rare Birds" is an album whose songs have a forcibly vintage character and are based on Ptolemaic mannerism: a long — almost interminable — work devoid of any emotionally relevant content. This holds true for the album as a whole, even when JW disengages with John Lennon pretenses ("Sunset Blvd") and Beatles psychedelia ("Miriam Montague") and pop forms in the style of Kurt Vile or War On Drugs ("Over Midnight," "There's A Light," "Living With Myself," "Hard To Get Over"...). Jonathan Wilson belongs to a geocentric musical culture, in the face of which science and Copernican theories have no impact. But what to do in the face of such inertia both in rotational and conceptual terms? My suggestion is to plead guilty of "heresy." After all, you'll already have served your sentence anyway in the futile attempt to listen to this album.