CD Reviews

Barry Adamson

Back to the Cat | Central Control

By MICHAEL BRODEUR | April 15, 2008

3.5 Stars

It’s easy to imagine this eighth solo outing from Barry Adamson (an ex-post-punker in Magazine, and a former Bad Seed to boot) as a problematic prospect for listeners new to his evocative style. Sure, it’s soul, soothingly familiar in just about every regard. But given that Adamson’s throaty croons and warbles often come off like some triangulation of Leonard Cohen, Isaac Hayes, and William Shatner, and given that his albums often feel like soundtracks to spy films that never existed, and given that he has no qualms about sex and, it seems, the getting thereof, this album could be a one-way trip to Discomfortville for prudish newbs unwilling to meet him halfway. When in “Spend a Little Time” we learn that the little time he’d like to spend is squarely “in your front garden,” you can be certain his mission involves losing your skirt. When he rattles off welcomes to “lowlifes and deadbeats, homos and heteros, Negroes and down-lows, freakers and tweakers” in “The Beaten Side of Down,” it’s the type of beatified beatnik babble that could seem terminally bogus and dated. But for all the cautions and caveats, Adamson’s mastery of memorable, expertly crafted songs is evident throughout — and if he doesn’t quite meet your needs, maybe you oughta consider meeting his.

Related: Nurse with Wound, Flashbacks: July 14, 2006, Thursday night live, More

Nurse with Wound
This is cinematic pastiche at its best, similar to Barry Adamson’s phantasmal scores but with the dada knob tweaked way to the right.
Flashbacks: July 14, 2006
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Sam MacLaughlin and Hannah Van-Susteren.
Thursday night live
Tina Fey, ex-head writer of Saturday Night Live , has created a sitcom that takes viewers behind-the-scenes of a SNL -style sketch comedy show. And turns out her show is funnier than the real thing.
Review: Star Trek
The original Star Trek , after all, didn't even complete its five-year mission. Four spinoff TV series, 10 theatrical releases, and millions of dollars of merchandise later, the Enterprise goes back into space with the original cast, if not the original actors. Live long and prosper indeed.
Video: 2010 horror movie previews
Will 2010 be a festive romp of eye-gouging, throat-slitting, and disemboweling?
Who are you?
I’d hazard that when most of us think of pictures with “hidden meanings,” we don’t envision portraits, a genre that usually entails straight-ahead representations of, well, heads, at least.
Joe Pernice and Joyce Linehan's collected tweets
Those who pre-ordered the new Pernice Brothers LP, Goodbye, Killer , received a slender paperback called Pernice to Me , authored and signed by Joe Pernice and Joyce Linehan. It consists of Linehan — Pernice's Dorchester-based manager, publicist, and co-owner of his label, Ashmont Records — documenting conversations the pair had on tour and while the band was recording the album.
Cross country trek
A two-day mission
Quotes + numbers, January 27, 2006
4.9: Number of minimum-wage workers it takes to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Greater Boston.
On the racks: May 16, 2006
Plus new records by Radio 4, Rock Kills Kid, and Ben Folds.
Finding Amanda
Matthew Broderick sleepwalks through Peter Tolan’s debut film as a hack TV writer with a gambling addiction.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Barry Adamson, Barry Adamson, William Shatner

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