Album Reviews

John Cale's guitar-fueled, angry yet nostalgic first Island release from 1974 is easily his finest solo effort in my book. It's certainly his most consistently well written and performed record.

Cale delivers his vocals crisply, intensely and with great emotional clarity over a hard and wiry backing dominated by Phil Manzanera's sharply etched chords and screaming, overdriven and always tasteful solos. Richard Thompson, no slouch when it comes to screaming, overdriven, cut loose andwail tasteful solos contributes on one track. Eno adds his usual knob-twiddling, atmosphere-creating "treatments" and a lilting chick background singing duo adds the love interest.

The album veers from the terrifying opener "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend," to the timely "Buffalo Ballet," and the sublime adult lullaby "The Man Who Couldn't Afford to Orgy."

There are linear ballads like "Ship of Fools" and "You Know More Than I Know," and powerful explosives like "Gun" and the hard-bitten finale "Momomma Scuba."

Engineer John Wood, better known for his folky stuff with everyone from Nick Drake to Fairport Convention shows that he could rock too, while providing his usual well-organized musical picture.

Wood produces big, tightly focused images, with all the grit, impact and clarity you'd want from the electric guitars and a snare drum sound that "pops" just right. He keeps the harmonic colors muted and film noir-ish, bathing Cale's voice in a street-alley reverb that casts an incandescent light on the music, behind which lurks a mysterious darkness out of which surprises often spring.

The original UK Island "Sunray" pressing, mastered by George Peckham (whose "dead wax" scribings can read "Porky," "Pecko Duck," and/or "Another Porky Prime Cut") hits all the right notes and sounds fantastic—in perfect sympathy with Wood's intent. I feel sorry for anyone who has to cut lacquers for a reissue and have them compared to a Peckham original. It's not fair.

Unfortunately, this mysterious reissue on the "Vinyl Lovers" label, under license from "OOO 'Universal Music', Russia," and manufactured in the EU, while nicely pressed, perhaps at Pallas, sounds mastered from a CD, using a bad CD player. It's not even close to the original.

Everything's been cleaned and sanitized for your protection. The wonderfully ragged instrumental textures have all been smoothed over. What are beautifully muted colors are reduced to gray scale. Careful front to back positioning of instruments and voices have been flattened into a single dimension. There is no "there, there."

Even the cover is poorly executed. There are reissues worth $30.00: records cut from original master tapes using great gear by people who know what they are doing. Records where you know who did it and what was used for the source. Records that feature high quality artwork and paper.

This overpriced piece of "product" offers decent pressing quality, but little else for your $30.00 Stay away and proceed with caution with everything from "Vinyl Lovers." That's my advice.