John Cale albums
1974
Fear – 94%
This is John Cale’s best album and one of the best singer songwriter albums ever made for sure. Alone it set the stage for so many to follow, not just mastering a bit of pop music perfection and some strange erratic timbres, but also finding a nice middle ground based in solid songwriting. Opener “Fear is a Man’s Best Friend” is excellent at setting tones, a song that shakes the foundation of the full band used here (members of Roxy Music especially). Just about a perfect set of songs follows, the masterful piano ballad about sleeping in the mid-day sun “Buffalo Ballet”, the chugging rock of laid back “Barracuda” with his shrieking viola that almost has a Caribbean feel, the perfect ode to lost love of the slower, ocean wave crashing “Emily.” “Ship of Fools” is by far my favorite, an epic sounding majesty of piano keys that seem to glow in the sky that simply solidify his place in the history books (even though yes as a founding Velvet Underground member he was already there.
Things take a fascinating turn on “Gun”, and eight-minute nightmare of a song featuring Richard Thompson on guitar battling with tonality and Cale revealing his rabid screaming side of his personality. Cale is a beat who can do it all, a pretty voice when he wants it and an ancient demon harnessing evil powers the next. The last three songs are Definity as strong as the first six, but each have their moments and are still fun to behold- “The Man Who Couldn’t Afford to Orgy” injects some humor into his ballads with heaving woman singing back up, “You Know More than I know” (still a minor classic in my book) brings his ballads down to very simple ones, and closer “Mama Scubba” ends the album with a touch of funk-rock ala Dr john that would prove influential on the new wave music of the next couple years. IN fact, listing to Fear form 1974, you can hear shades of so many artists to follow: Nick Cave, Talking Heads, Tom Petty, Warren Zevon, etc and proves Cale is always ahead of the curve. What a joy to listen to.
Best Songs: Ship of Fools, Gun, Emily
will fill in more gaps in his discography soon
2023
Mercy - 87%
John Cale has been playing alternative rock hero since 1966 or so, so his work at 80 years hold is always worth a good notice. His take on music is slow, disarming and haunting and while I would say I am glad he is releasing anything at all “Mercy” is actually a blessing of a title track all by itself. The average song length in 5 or 7 minutes, so at 12 tracks its about 70 minutes of pure moody observations. I wouldn’t call these love songs exactly, so he didn’t age like a contemporary like Leonard Cohen, but I would call them purely abstract pieces that push boundaries, so he is not as out there as say…Scott Walker.
There has always been a line in Cale’s work between the melodic pop song( represented here by “I Know Your Happy” and “Everlasting Days”) and the strange, minimalist ballad (best represented by “Story of Blood”, a duet with Weyes Blood and “Everlasting Days” a duet with Animal Collective). So I am happy that…he’s happy. At least his version of happy, and as the last living member of the Velvet Underground still making music, it’s a work that deserves to be listened to over and over to try to interpret what it means even if it can be a challenging listen. Cale was always the one pushing boundaries even ifd he occasionally makes us smile along ethe way- he invented modern rock music as we know it with Lou Reed and Company so in 50 more years, everything may all sound like this album.
Best Songs: I Know your Happy, Everlasting Days, Story of Blood, Nightcrawling