I’m always exploring new music,
but since my music reviews are in random order you might not know it. I was
reminded of this by a regular reader this afternoon. Here’s a recent scouting
report:
·
Wilco – After reviewing
“A Ghost is Born” I was inspired to the four latest Wilco albums. None are bad
but the only one I’m interested in picking up is their self-titled effort from
2009.
·
I also recently
checked out every artist from a recent article enumerating the top 15 albums of
2015. The standouts were Courtney Barnett, Torres and Sleater Kinney. Courtney
Barnett is truly awesome, and since Sleater Kinney has been around since the
mid-nineties I delved through their eight-disc catalogue. I’ve still got two to
go, but the early winners are “Call the Doctor” (1996) and “Dig Me Out” 1997. To
all of you readers shouting “I’ve known that for years!” congratulations, you’re
very clever. They’re new to me.
On to the Odyssey, and a disc that’s
been in my collection for longer than Sleater Kinney have even existed.
Disc 811 is….Pontiac
Year of Release: 1988
What’s up with the Cover? An out-of-focus shot of Mr.
Lovett. Like Nick Cave from my last review, Lyle is “ugly sexy” and has the
most resplendent head of hair from this era. Check this shot out from inside
the CD jacket:
In the
mid-nineties I brought this picture to my stylist and said “give me the Lyle!”
I might go back to the Lyle one day, but right now I’m still enjoying the David
Crosby.
How I Came To Know It: I’ve told this story before,
but since it was six years ago, I’ll tell it again. I saw a Lyle Lovett video for
the song "Here I Am", bought an album and have been hooked
ever since. The song was from his 1986 debut, and as his sophomore effort, “Pontiac”
seemed the logical place to go next.
How It Stacks Up: I have 11 Lyle Lovett albums and they are all
good, but for some reason I’ve been rolling a lot of the weaker ones. Not
anymore – “Pontiac” is a classic record that should be in any music lover’s
collection. I rank it #1.
Ratings: 5 stars
Like Nick Cave on “Let Love In”, “Pontiac” is
an album exploring the nature of love. The difference is that while Lyle is not
afraid to explore love when it goes wrong, he also sees the humour in the
situation. The effect is a record that is less dark than “Let Love In” but more
insightful in both musical range and theme.
Musically Lyle is a fantastic mix of blues, country,
lounge and a smattering of jazz. Leonard Cohen has the same mix with a folk
bent and Tom Waits is that mix with a blues bent. Lyle is their country cousin.
That said, to call this album a country album is to
understate its range. “M.O.N.E.Y.” and
“She’s No Lady” feel like they are
part of a lounge act, and “Black and Blue”
is something you’d hear in a smoky jazz bar.
Of these, “She’s
No Lady” is my favourite. It is a song about marriage to a veritable
harridan which is more funny than tragic; think Basil Faulty out on the town. The
song begins:
“She hates my mama
She hates my daddy too
She loves to tell me
She hates the things I do
She loves to lie beside me
Almost every night
She’s no lady, she’s my wife.”
Lovett – the master of comic timing has just the
subtlest of pauses before singing “almost” to let you know his girl isn’t
always coming home to tell him what she thinks of him. As someone who’s been
married a while (to a great woman, not a harridan) my favourite line is “Seems like she’s always been hanging here off
my right arm.”
Other lighthearted love songs on the album include “Give Back My Heart” about a bull rider
meeting a girl who likes his line of work, and “She’s Hot to Go” another jazzy theatre number which has a Muppet
Show beat and lyrics about a girl who’s ‘hot to go’, but ‘ugly from the front.’
As Lyle’s chorus replies, “but you ugly
too!”
For all that fun, “Pontiac” also has its dark side.
The title track is a moody and understated character study about an old man years
returned from the war, now feeling trapped in his life of normalcy, with a wife
who has no way to understand his pain. He sees her only as “The woman inside my house/She won’t stop
talking/She never says a thing.”
“I Loved You Yesterday” is a traditional honkytonk
break up song, and “Walk Through the
Bottomland” is the counter to “Give
Back My Heart” – featuring a woman who falls for a rodeo worker but can’t
live that life, and instead drifts away broken-hearted.
The album’s masterpiece is “L.A. County” a song that at first blush sounds like it is triumphant
and upbeat until you listen carefully to the lyrics. This is a song about a
woman leaving a man, moving away and falling in love with someone new. The song
follows her jilted lover as he drives into L.A. County, marveling at the beauty
of the lights even as a dark .45 pistol sits ominously on the seat next to him.
The song has a fast country beat and a manic quality
to the melody that captures the certainty in the heart of the man with the
pistol. His resolve is pure and clear, and I was reminded how mania and maniacs
are intrinsically linked. It is a troubling insight into what can happen when
the self-righteous feel they have been wronged and quickly move past reason in
their quest for vengeance.
Both “L.A.
County” and “Walk Through the
Bottomland” have backing vocals from Emmylou Harris, who’s high quaver adds
just the right amount of sadness and yearning to each.
My only quibble with this record is that it suffers
from the bad production common to late eighties CDs, which were often recorded
for tape and record and transferred over without any treatment. As a result it
sounds a bit muted, and I’d love for Lyle to release a remaster of this
undervalued classic. Even without the remaster, I’m still giving it 5 stars.
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