I am now officially 25% of the way through the [More Than] 1001 Albums list. This is a solo album from John Cale, ex- of the Velvet Underground. From what I can tell, the friction between him and Lou Reed became so great that Reed basically demanded of the other band members that either Cale left, or the band would be broken up. And then essentially went solo himself. Musicians, such a temperamental bunch....
This is unlike any Velvet Underground material, not even their more mellow The Velvet Underground album. It reminds me of something, but I maddeningly can’t work it out. It’s a little bit Brian Eno, but hopefully it’ll come to me. Hard to describe, it’s got a kind of melodic simplicity backed up by orchestral work, songs that are pleasant and soothing rather than especially complex or challenging. Cale’s voice is quite low in the mix, and sometimes the lyrics are a little difficult to pick out apart from the chorus parts.
There’s a loose theme that made me think for some reason of an anthology of early Twentieth Century poetry. Possibly it’s Cale’s outfit on the cover and the use of a font that brings to mind Toulouse-Lautrec (and by extension, artistic types of all disciplines sojourning in France), not to mention the title (and title track) Paris 1919. The concept of the peace accords after the Great War is present as a sense – well-intentioned but ultimately flawed and leading to greater destruction. The aftermath of WWI is also referenced in Half Past France. The material touches on Graham Greene (track of the same name), Shakespeare (the track Macbeth) and on Dylan Thomas (referenced by the title of the track A Child’s Christmas In Wales). This latter has autobiographical notes for Cale, himself Welsh (which I did not know).
It was okay. This mix didn’t work for me, too indistinct, I’d have liked to have had more clarity to each part. Unless it’s my ears from having listened to 272 consecutive albums on headphones. In which case I may not make it for the remaining 75%. I hope this is not the case.
Having reached the milestone of quarter of the way through, I'm going to take another short break from listening to the albums. This may or may not impact on my publication of the blog posts, as it's currently April when I'm writing this, and I'll hopefully catch up with my buffer before then. The process of writing these involves listening to the album (obviously!), writing the draft which involves first impressions, musings, and results of any research on the album, then publishing that to my blog, then a process where I add in the album cover and proof-read the post, and there's another quick check over before the post goes live.
Not that you need to know this, and I'm sure it's not an unusual process. A lot depends on how long the album is, how complex it is, and it feels like both have been steadily increasing since the start of the Seventies (it's a golden age for the double album).
You, my readers, if any are left at this stage, may well see the next album (Solid Air by John Martyn) published tomorrow, 30th September 2025, and this will all be irrelevant.
I just wish I could remember what this album reminded me of.
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