The Claypool Lennon Delirium
Monolith of Phobos

What a strange and at the same time curious collaboration. Certainly interesting. On one side, here we have someone who is considered one of the greatest interpreters of his instrument in the realm of rock music. I'm obviously talking about Leslie Edward 'Les' Claypool, mainly known for being the frontman and vocalist (and of course, the bassist, clear!) of Primus. One of the most appreciated and influential bands in experimental rock music and in terms of funk and progressive music over the last twenty or thirty years.

On the other side, here is Sean Lennon. The son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, born in New York City in 1975 and over the years, practically always, involved in an endless series of musical and artistic projects since his debut as a solo artist with the album 'Into the Sun' in 1998.

Here then are the Claypool Lennon Delirium, a project which also involves USA drummer Paulo Baldi and Mr. Money Mark on synths and keyboards, a musician particularly known and mainly for his long collaboration with the Beastie Boys.

How to define this project? Once it would have been called a 'supergroup', but Les Claypool himself has better defined this operation as a musical interaction or jam and consequently as a kind of conversation, a meeting between friends and an interaction that somehow, as a musician, wants to be recognized as the deepest possible way to interact.

Released via ATO Records last June, 'Monolith of Phobos' includes typical elements of psychedelic and art rock fused with pop and progressive music elements, and we can consider it as a blend of the artistic experiences of the two American musicians and everything they have done over the years up to today.

Influenced, of course, mainly by typical seventies sounds, the album is pervaded by an MC5 and Blue Cheer acidity. On some occasions, it is especially Claypool's bass that is evident, taking the lead and regulating and defining the structures of the songs ('Captain Lariat', 'Mr. Wright'). At other times, you can find in the songs the echo of central episodes of British psychedelic music from the late sixties. But how could it be otherwise, if one of the two members is the son of John Lennon after all. 'Bubble Burst', 'Cricket and the Genie (Movement I, The Delirium)', 'Ohmerica', all pay homage to the Beatles or Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd. But the album is not just a sort of revival of the music of the sixties and seventies. 'There's No Underwear In Space' even if starting from the same premises, recalls some of the more experimental episodes of the British pop band Blur and throughout the record, you also feel a certain influence of the indie culture that spread starting from the nineties, which is the background where Sean Lennon grew up and formed. And of which he himself is in his way one of the central figures for the entire cultural movement.

What to say. You could probably consider this episode as something not very interesting. This is because beyond appearances, let's say it clearly: it is a mainstream product and as such destined for the large public. There is no doubt about this. The album is beautifully recorded and even better arranged, always sounding in a more than clean and linear way, maybe even too much so to give the listener a truly deep emotional involvement. But it must also be said that the songs are good. The sound is somehow always 'poppy' and catchy and maybe this is the main reason why we can make a connection to a certain type of sound that today we would define as vintage. Beyond the art rock attitude and psychedelic experimentation, we cannot help but consider this as a pop music album. Because it is. Because it is easy-listening and because it has typical pop music content and because it is intended for an audience that is surely not limited. But it's okay. In the end, it's fine like this. Take it or leave it.