The Thread Where Scott Seward Can Tell Me: "I told ya so." (aka: I like HP Lovecraft the band now)

Slowly but surely, the debauchery of the 70's is catching up with M.F. He hasn't hit rock-bottom yet, but the album opener, "Sanpaku", is one helluva hangover song. He used to chew the root until his brain was fried, chop the line, wake up red-eye from the wine. He can't even remember all the highs he tried! A regretful string-section lies quietly in the brush and Paul Griffin lets loose with a lovely organ solo. An exotic jungle lay-dee takes him by the hand and warns him away from the low life. (F.Y.I.-For better or for worse, Rousseau is one of M.F.'s fave painters and is praised in the sleeve-notes for his "innocent directness". Lock up yer daughters, America.) "When It's Over" is the shortest, sweetest kiss-off you've ever heard: "All those books on your shelf...Did they teach you how to cure yourself? Not even Sigmund Freud can save you from the love you destroyed." Ouch! "Living On The Inside" is a much more tranquil and domestic scene. The tea is from Tibet, Michael plays the scales, and his lady protects the whales. They make love listening to Satie, they paint the rooms, the pumpkins bloom. "We're so francais/With lime & Perrier." Ooh baby baby. Stellar slow jam cast too: Ron Carter, Bucky Pizzarelli, Kenny Barron, and weeping (with joy) string-section. This is just a great getting away from it all jazz-pop album. The emphasis is definitely on the "jazz" too. Beautiful arrangements for brass and the (regretful & weeping) strings. "Tiger In The Rain" is -sigh- a love song to Michael's cat, but it's such a pretty tune with such a strong melody that it more than transcends its precious/homely sentiments. Sick of the zombie trains, and stews and critics that are too acidic, M.F. ends up in Brazil under a banana tree by the end of side one. By side two he's underneath an apple tree (In, hey!, whaddya know, a song called "Underneath The Apple Tree".) shooting up summertime and drinking tea instead of wine. In the nude. Most memorable lines award would have to go to either: "Let's play pin-the-tail-on-the-bunny/Let's play grizzly bear finding honey/Let the lukewarm milk of precaution be spilt-It's full-tilt." OR "When I saw you there in your Danskin/Then the wolf jumped out of the lambskin/And a blush came over your cheeks/In the room filled with freaks". The overlong cliche-riddled "Lifeline" that closes the record is the only dud. The nautical metaphors used to describe a love-affair sink this leaky ship. M.F. doesn't sound at ease on the sea. He's a bossa nova baby at heart and needs to be on the beach to really make his luverly ditties swim.

Michael Franks - Objects Of Desire (Warner Brothers - 1982)

On the opener, "Jealousy", Michael swallows a meat-hook. The slightly airless - like someone cracked the can but didn't let enough light in - horns echo his dyspepsia. On "Ladies' Night", Bonnie Rait joins Michael at the bar of the Wishing Well Saloon for some 50 cent drinks. The sessioneers are strutting their well-honed stuff. Or sleeping. One or the other. How could you tell by this point in their careers. Sessioneers? And then some: The Bros. Brecker, Larry Carlton, Mark Egan, Steve Khan, David Sanborn, Lew Soloff, Luther Vandross and many more. You get the picture. The deck is stacked for no-surprise smooth. Michael doesn't fool around when he calls in the pros. And his toothbrush may be gone, but he's still got a tank full of laughing gas. Too bad his vocals were recorded on an MRI machine. But it was the 80's. People were in love with their shiny new machines and their Arps and their OB-Xa's and their Prophet-5's and their digitally processed flugelhorns. Michael fries up rice in a pan in "Wonderland", where the jills ain't jokin' when they take you to heaven for a subway token. "Wonderland" is actually a dream. Hypnotic and warm to the touch. Sometimes that Moog bass can really come in handy. Slow jam as narcoleptic nod-out. While Michael's hot buttermilk vocal tones aren't in any way curdled on Objects Of Desire, there is a weary 70's hangover vibe that invades the material. Even his Tahitian sweety hands him a note that reads: "Love is the pain you can't refuse." M.F. is the king of food and drink as metaphor and reminder of sex/love and on this album he sounds like he's gone on a diet. There is no tea steeping in the pot. He sits under a mango tree, but does he partake in this exotic fruit? Man cannot live on fried rice alone. "Flirtation" has some pep in its step, but it's not very convincing pep. There is no essential vim in its strenuous vigor. "Love Duet" is a lyrical dud. The disco strings and Arthur On The Rocks saxophone begin to take their toll on the listener. The whole thing ends with "No One But You". A pretty little ballad that would sound great coming from Blossom Dearie. M.F.'s best ballads all sound as if they were made to be sung by cabaret veterans in a hotel lounge at midnight. And I mean this as a compliment. Not that he can't sell them on his own. He can. Overall, on this album it sounds like Michael was in need of a long nap (No mean feat for a singer who often sounds like he has recorded his vocals in bed.). Maybe the sexy seventies had caught up with this often horizontal blue-eyed soulman with the bedroom mustache. Lovers can't always be rockin'. Not essential - with the exceptions of the two lovely little trifles that end each side - but the picture on the inside sleeve where Michael looks like Frank Zappa is worth a buck or two.

great reviews btw.

4LIFE

i've just watched Dracula AD 1972 and there's a great hippy-bluesrock outfit in it called Stoneground, singer vibrates some of the same vocal quiver as bolan/devendra/dalton, apparently there are recs by these beards, anyone heard 'em (they do a great cover of Alligator Man in the flick)?

seriously, i think if you smoked a big fatty and let this album have its way with you that you might change your mind about one of the greatest bands that ever ruled the land with a velvet fist

http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/hajime_513/imgs/a/b/abaf40ce.jpg

rad album

the first Fever Tree album is badass.
I love Queen, too. The only thing that could make the Sheer Heart Attack lp better is if the song "sheer heart attack" was on it.
Scott, do you like 20th Century Zoo?

I DO I DO I DO

(not skot)

"velvet fist"

i need that twentieth century zoo album. i don't own a copy. it's kinda pricey. i have never heard the whole thing. i'm pretty sure i had the pre-album singles on a comp? maybe. maybe i'm making that up. i lose track of comp tracks.

maria's grandmother gave me a check for 200 bucks (love ya, grandma!) for my birthday and i splurged on ebay psych. four records for 200 bucks. i never do that. but i'm getting old and might die, so what the hell.

whatd you get?

i got super-nice copies of:

http://popsike.com/pix/20070510/320112637405.jpg

http://popsike.com/pix/20031101/2569618774.jpg

i love the other half cover. it could just as easily say "K-TEL PRESENTS ROCK ALBUM" or something.

and:

http://popsike.com/pix/20040113/2588616405.jpg

http://popsike.com/pix/20061110/110054064921.jpg

now i'm all about selling stuff though. i've been digging thru the stacks today.

Looks like a nice haul. I've just got 20th Century Zoo on a sundazed cd.
"Rainbow" is an all-time classic!

i see that CHILD record all the time.
i do not like queen, no matter what u tell me.

http://www.mediafire.com/?fdy5m9x930i

rare earth - ecology

the Child record is cool. and i got it pretty cheap. i mean, if you like to overdose on acid rock guitars it's cool. and if you don't mind a rather long and bombastic organ-drenched version of "Ol' Man River" it's cool.

Everyone can hear Ecology now! Yay!!!! What a record.

So, I'm Really The Last Person On Earth To Know How Cool Rare Earth's Ecology Album Is?