I called the previous album from Genesis “theatrical”, and so is this one, although this is more like a cabaret show; the opening track with ambient chatter and marching piano evokes the idea of Weimar Republic decadence, and with its descent into darkness is similar to the show/film Cabaret.
Although it’s not evident at first, this is a concept album telling the story of Jim and Caroline, a couple that destroy their lives through selfish behaviour under the pressures of poverty. The first tracks are more scene-setting, and have that kind of vaudevillian piano/orchestral march to them – Men Of Good Fortune tells of the social effects of wealth inequality, while in Lady Day an un-named female character (we can assume later Caroline) is drawn to bars to dance on the tables – possibly a drunken escape from drudgery.
Caroline Says I is fairly up-tempo, about a man who is in love with Caroline despite how she belittles and cuckolds him; in Caroline Says II the tables have turned (or, perhaps, the perception has shifted focus) and it is Caroline who is suffering domestic violence at the hands of a man who takes out his frustrations at the world on her.
The second half of the album, including Caroline Says II, is more muted, centred around acoustic guitar. The shift happens in the middle of the track Oh Jim, where Jim is becoming more embittered and taking drugs. The first half is the cabaret feel, the latter part the acoustic feel. Things fall apart when Caroline’s daughters are taken away in The Kids, and in the final song The Bed we learn that she has taken her own life, and Jim is left with remorse (or self-pity) despite it largely being his actions that led to him being utterly alone in a bed full of memories.
Apparently this was critically panned on
release, but it’s pretty good. Dark, yes, but not remorselessly miserable in
the music (unlike, say, the Billy Holiday album we had, or David Ackles). And is it really any
darker than the folk ballads where a jealous husband kills his wife/girlfriend
and/or her lover in a fit of jealous rage? C.f. almost every Johnny Cash song,
for example. The parallels are made musically clear by Oh Jim being a kind of
cowboy lullaby form of song.
It’s probably harder because it’s less abstracted, more forensic in its examination of the foibles of the couple and how they go from young optimism to blaming each other for their troubles. They’re a little like if the couple in Fairytale In New York got an entire prequel album about them.
I rather liked it, there’s some grim psychological depth involved here. I notice that the critic Robert Christgau gets quoted a lot on the Wikipedia pages for these albums, and he’s nearly always snootily dismissive and nearly always wrong. It’s easy to be destructively critical of things; I prefer to find what good I can, even for the albums that I didn’t especially care for.
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