Izvajalec: Sleepy Jackson, The
Založba: EMI Records
Izid: year
Ocena: 4.5/5
Personality is an album that could have been recorded in the late ’60s or early ’70s, only to be shelved and forgotten until its rediscovery, all the way up to today.
And yet, even though this is a very current release, it gives no hints that might help slot it more easily into any modern pop music framework. If I were forced to make a comparison, all I could say is that it’s, in some way, a very distant relative of At War With The Mystics by The Flaming Lips.
Personality is the second chapter in the musical story of The Sleepy Jackson, whose frontman is Luke Steel. The debut, Lovers, came out in 2003 (also on EMI) and was a sort of musically smaller predecessor to this album, smaller only because this one is a true polyphonic giant! Everything on it is pushed to the extreme – tons of sound, huge arrangements, majestic production, and at moments it’s honestly already too much! It takes at least a few listens for the whole thing to take on any kind of living, listenable shape, otherwise all that sonic saturation can get downright suffocating. But once we fight our way through that dense musical atmosphere, we find really pleasant melodies that love to wrap themselves in harmonies we know from black-and-white days or from John Lennon’s later solo albums. Though otherwise, generally speaking, The Sleepy Jackson’s work draws mostly from the equally rich, but somewhat less celebrated catalog of a Beatle, George Harrison.
And once we accept the album as our own — or rather, once the album accepts us as its own — we can easily discover that inside these two personalities (one is a spider, the other is a bird!) there are plenty of different things offering long-lasting, multi-layered enjoyment. As Luke Steel himself wrote in a kind of foreword that adorns the inside of the sleeve, “A nightmare is a restless song, a placement. A dream is a blessing. I asked for both and I got both. As one.”
So one doesn’t work without the other, and this album offers both. At the same time!
Understandably, the album has met with very mixed reactions – for such a headstrong creation, any other kind of response would be downright suspicious! Still, with its summery exuberance, it (can) deliver a lot of satisfaction, whether listened to in full or by picking out just individual tracks, which, surprisingly, shine brilliantly when played on their own, too.
A bit more for music connoisseurs than for general tastes!
Zasedba
Luke Steel – vokal, kitara
Malcolm Clark – bobni, klaviature
GOSTJE:
Orkester 20/20 (20/20 Orchestra)
Davey Lane – kitara,
Dave Symes – bas kitara
Felix Bloxsom – tolkala, klaviature, kitara
Kim Moyes – vibrafon, tolkala
Jim Moginie – kitara
Mathew Goulbourn – kitara
Nick Summers – pedal steel
Anthony Kable – pozavna
Scott Horscroft – električne klaviature, kitara
Julian Hamilton – klaviature
Juanita Tippins – spremljevalni vokali
Ben Hurton – french horn
Robert Woolf – bas, klaviature
Produkcija
Scott Horscott & Luke Steel
Seznam skladb
01. You Needed More
02. Devil Was In My Yard
03. God Lead Your Soul
04. Work Alone
05. God Knows
06. I Understand What You Mean But I Just Don’t Agree
07. Miles Away
08. Higher Than Hell
09. Play A Little Bit For Love
10. Don’t Say
11. You Won’t Bring People Down In My Town
12. Dream On
13. How Was I Supposed To Know
Trajanje albuma: 42:52
