John CALE
Poptical Illusion
Domino
Rel: 17 Jun 24
Indie/Alternative
| Side 1 - Track 1. God Made Me Do It (Don't Ask Me Again) |
| Side 1 - Track 2. Davies & Wales |
| Side 1 - Track 3. Calling You Out |
| Side 2 - Track 1. Edge Of Reason |
| Side 2 - Track 2. I'm Angry |
| Side 2 - Track 3. How We See The Light |
| Side 3 - Track 1. Company Commander |
| Side 3 - Track 2. Setting Fires |
| Side 3 - Track 3. Shark-Shark (vinyl mix) |
| Side 4 - Track 1. Funkball The Brewster |
| Side 4 - Track 2. Laughing In My Sleep |
| Side 4 - Track 3. There Will Be No River |
It's hard to feel 'meh' about John Cale. In fact, it's impossible. The Welsh musician, Velvet Underground alumni and composer has given us 18 studio albums, including June 2024's Poptical Illusion, and there's nary a misstep in the lot. His latest plays out like a warm bath full of dreamy optimism, a follow up to the highly collaborative affair, Mercy, here we see the super-talent adjust his focus and fly out alone to prove the point. And prove it he does. Across 12 weird and unarguably wonderful tracks, Cale manages to defy genres, flitting between chamber punk and beach pop, theatrical croon-dom and syrupy downtempo. While there are dark-er moods, 'Funkball The Brewster', for example, on the whole this is smile-inducing, if bat-shit crazy stuff, from start to finish.