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Rating:
"Tuesday Weld": American actress. Never heard of her in my life. "I, Lucifer": not one, but two books, by Peter O'Donnell and Glen Duncan; which I also didn't know until today.
No, instead I'll talk to you about this languid album and this rather strange band. Not so much for the fact that the rock of these British musicians, led by singer Stephen Coates, has been heavily steeped in the jazz-cabaret atmospheres of the first half of the last century, nor because in this album you will find pianos, brass, strings, and electronic music. Together.
What raises my eyebrow is how on the same album you can hear tracks like "Bathtime in Clerkwell" and "One More Chance"; or how they chose to open the same with our Clerkwell bath and close it with "Pearly Gates". In fact, after a little introductory speech, the fateful second track will start. "Bathtime in Clerkwell", let's be clear, is a house piece. But it is in the way that Ravel's Bolero could have been in its time. Basically (I recommend watching the video) you will hear the crescendo of the usual three incomprehensible words, with a very strong beat/bass and some welcome brass intermissions. It’s a crazy piece, without a doubt, but actually also damnably conformist to a very specific stylistic choice. Uncommittable in other ways. I like it, it’s a cheerful little tune. And you find this electronic vein again in "The Life And Times Of The Clerkenwell Kid", where with a much darker background, the equally somber Coates alternates with all the instrumentation present in the album. Instead, "The Ugly & The Beautiful" (or its acoustic guitar counterpart "La Bete Et La Belle") and "The Eternal Seduction Of Eve" are real little songs, more or less devoid of any virtuosity, characterized by a certain French-like aftertaste...
"(Still) Terminally Ambivalent Over You" I wouldn't underestimate: here too the rhythm is spasmodic and suggestive, and the balance between instrumentation and electronics seems to be reached. "The Show Must Go On" is the most enjoyable track: the melody is very pleasant, the solos are spot-on and once again I am surprised by the rhythm (borrowed from some unknown 30s club...). The title is also nice.
Towards the end if "Heaven Can't Wait" is a nice piece of pure solo, "The Pearly Gates" is instead something flat, immobile, dead, and mortuary. Something that makes you want to put the word END to an album that has one track too many.
This album makes me think about how in recent times low male voices seem to have made a comeback: Coates holds his own, in fact, he accompanies us tenderly through this journey into the "Old Beats" genre (a term invented by themselves). Yet I had the impression that his natural register was a little different. A sign that there is great effort on his part, and therefore it should be rewarded. As for the "mere musical substance", this is not to be understood either as a jazzrock album or as yet another dadaist masterpiece postrock-poprock. It's experimental music, at times boring and melancholic, but not lacking in inventiveness and imagination.
A piece of advice: try listening to it with your girlfriend, it could have interesting outcomes (only if you are particularly romantic types!)
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Bathtime in Clerkenwell (02:52)
If only it was so simple
(oh!)
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wa-damm-de-dumm!
Happ-tili-lula-domm
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wa-damm-de-dumm!
Happ-tili-lula-domm
[x2]
(Debb)
(Ah-wulli) Hopp-de-lil-lel-lao-awomm-liel-lu-lu-lah-hom-mih
(maba-bube-deben)
(Ah-wulli) Hopp-de-lil-lel-lao-awomm-liel-lu-lu-lah-hom-mih
(maba-bube-deben)
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wa-damm-de-dumm!
Happ-tili-lula-domm
[x2]
Ah-wulli!
Wa-damm-de-dumm!
Happ-tili-lula-domm
Ah-wulli!
[x8]
Hopp-de-lil-lel-lao-awomm-liel-lu-lu-lah-hom-mih
(maba-bube-deben)
Hopp-de-lil-lel-lao-awomm-liel-lu-lu-lah-hom-mih
(maba-bube-deben)
Hopp-de-lil-lel-lao-awomm-liel-lu-lu-lah-hom-mih
(maba-bube-deben)
Hopp-de-lil-lel-lao-awomm-liel-lu-lu-lah-hom-mih
(maba-bube-deben)
(DO IT NOW!)
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Wa-damm-de-dumm!
Happ-tili-lula-domm
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-wale-den-de-bobo
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
(DO IT NOW)
Ah-wulli!
Wa-damm-de-dumm!
Happ-tili-lula-domm
Ah-wulli!
Wa-damm-de-dumm!
Happ-tili-lula-domm
(DO IT NOW)
Ah-wulli!
Wa-damm-de-dumm!
Happ-tili-lula-domm
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Wale-den-de-bobo-den-di-bili-dan-lo-no
Ah-wulli!
Ah-wulli!
Ah-wulli!
Ah-wulli!
Ah-wulli!
Ah-wulli!
Ah-wulli!
Ah-wulli!
(Oh!)
03 The Ugly and the Beautiful (04:09)
well after all that we've been through
would you still call this love baby?
cause love's the only proof
that the ugly could be beautiful
god knows i'm feeling spent
though i've still got my money honey
money's the revenge
of the ugly on the beautiful
well the drugs just ain't enough
though i like the way they made us crazy
but love's the only drug
it turns the ugly into beautiful
and i can't tell you why
i'm still so much afraid of dying
dying reconciles
the ugly with the beautiful
though we've been burned by it
let's still believe in love
cause love's the greatest gift
of the ugly to the beautiful
(repeat 1x)
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