CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

CHRISTAGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

DEPARTMENTS

by

Robert Christgau

I guess this one ought to be called English Art Rock Visited. Not Revisited, because I did my best to ignore these groups altogether when they were around. But I must admit that their memory persisted, which is why I feel impelled to explain my distaste now.

GENESIS: "Nursery Cryme" (Famous Charisma '71):: God's wounds! It's a "rock" version of the myth of Hermaphroditus! In quotes cos the organist and the (mime-influenced) vocalist have the drummer a little confused! Or maybe it's ju^t the invocation to Old King Cole! (Reissued as a two-LP set with Foxtrof). C*

GENESIS: "Foxtrot" (Famous Charisma '72) :: This band's defenders—fans of manual dexterity, aggregate IQ, "stagecraft," etc.—claim this as an improvement. And indeed, Tony Banks's organ crescendos are less totalistic, Steve Hackett's guitar is audible, and Peter Gabriel's lyrics take on medievalism, real-estate speculators, and the history of the world: This latter is the apparent subject of the 22:57-minute "Supper's Ready," which also suggests that Gabriel has a sense of humor and knows something about rock and roll, but do/i't expect'me to get more specific though—I never even cared what "Gates of Eden" "really meant." (Reissued as a two-LP set with Nursery Cryme.' C +

GENESIS: "Selling England By The Pound" (Famous Charisma '73):: The best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modem technology and modernist dissociation; the typical "progressive" project atterhpts to raise the music to classical grandeur or avant-garde status. Since "raise" is usually code for "delegitimize," I'm impressed that on half of this Peter Gabriel makes the idea work: his mock-mythologized gangland epic and menacing ocean pastorale have a complexity of tone that's pretty rare in any kind of art. Even more amazing, given past performances, organist Tony Banks defines music to match, schlocky and graceful and dignified all at once—when he's got it going, which is nowhere near often enough. As for the rest, it sounds as snooty as usual. Original grade: C + . 1 B

GENESIS: "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" (Atco '74):: I wanted to call this the most readable album since Quadrophenia, but it's only the wordiest—two inner sleeves covered with lyrics and a double-fold that's all small-type libretto. The apparent subject is the symbolic quest of a Puerto Rican hood/street kid/graffiti artist named Rael, but the songs neither shine by themselves nor suggest any thematic insight I'm eager to pursue. For art-rock, though, it's listenable, from Eno treatments to a hook that goes (I'm humming) "on Braw-aw-aw-aw-awaw-dway." , B~

HENRY COW: "The Henry Cow Legend" (Virgin '73):: Composed to encourage improvisation^ influenced by jazz yet identifying with Europe, and categorizable only as rock (although calling one.cut "Teenbeat" is stretching things), the music of these Cambridge progressives is

more flexible than King Crimson's and more stringently convinced than Soft'Machine's. As is usual in this style, not everything works. As is also usual, the guitar (Fred Frith) carries more clout than the saxophone (Geoff Leigh). As is not usual, you can listen to what few lyrics there are without getting sick. B

HENRY COW / SLAPP HAPPY: "In Praise Of Learning" (Red '79):: This 1975 U.K. release was Cow's second collaboration with guitarist-composer Peter Blegvad, pianist-composer Anthony Moore, and vocalist Dagmar, and if it's less successful than( the earlier Desperate Straights (still an import here), that's not the new guys' fault. Dagmar's abrasively arty, Weill-derived style, as bluesless and European as any "rock" singing ever recorded, does manage to find a coptext for words that seem literary if not pompous in print; in fact, between Dagmar and the Weillish Moore-Blegvad and Tim Hodgkinson music on side one, the lyrics seem almost as astute politically as the title. But except for some atonal Fred Frith piapo, the music on side two is dominated "by less * than winning musique concrete experiments that make such injunctions as "Arise Work Men and seize/the Future" seem completely academic. B

JETHRO TULL: "Benefit" (Reprise '70):: Ian Anderson.is one of those people who, attracts admirers by means.of a principled arrogance that has no relation to his actual talents or accomplishments. He does have one undeniable gift, though—he Jmows how to deploy riffs. Nearly every track dn this album is constructed around a good one, sometimes two; play it twice and you'll have the thing memorized. But I defy you to recall any lyrics. For all, his e-nun-ci-a-tion and attention to wordcraft Anderson can't or won't create the impression that he really cares about love/friendship/privacy, which I take to be his chief theme—the verbiage isn't obscure, but he really does make it hard to concentrate. I'm sure I hear one satirical exegesis on the generation gap, though. (Now on Chrysalis.) B*

JETHRO TULL: "Aqualung" (Reprise '71):: Ian Anderson is like the town free thinker. As long as you're stuck in the same town yourself,

his inchoate cultural interests and skeptical views on religion and human behavior are refreshing, but meet up with him in the city and he can turn out to be a real bore. Of course, he can also turn out to be Bob Dylan—it all depends on whether he rejected provincial values out of a thirst for more or out of a reflexive (maybe even somatic) negativism. And whether he was pretentious only because he didn't know any better. (Now on Chrysalis.) C +

JETHRO TULL: "Thick as a Brick" (Reprise 5 '72):: Ian Anderson is the type of guy who'll tell you a whole side is on one theme one album and £ then tell you a whole album is one song the next. The usual shit-rock (getting heavier), folk (getting feyer), classical (getting schlockier), flute (getting better because it couldn't have gotten worse),

words. (Now on Chrysalis.) C-

KING CRIMSON: "In the Wake of Poseidon" (Atlantic '70):: For a long time I thought this was the worst rock band in history simply because it was the most pretentious, but sometimes pretensions are (at least partially) earned. Their second album is more muddled conceptually than In the Court of the Crimson King,' quite a feat. But they're not afraid to be harsh, they command a range of styles, and their dynamics jolt rather than sledgehammer (properly Electric, that). Also, they can play: kudos to drummer Michael Giles and guitarist Robert Fripp, who also illustrates the old adage, "Better a Mellotron than real strings." Original grade: D plus. C +

KING CRIMSON: "Lizard" (Atlantic '71):: To call this progressive rock is only to prove the t$rm an oxymoron. But if you don't insist on snappy tunes with a gopd beat there are quite a few textural and technical attractions here, and the cold (not cool) jazziness of their compositions does project a certain cerebral majesty—third stream that deigns (rather than fails) to swing. Unfortunately, neither Gordon Haskell nor (keep off the weeds) Jon Anderson delivers Pete Sinfield's overwrought lyrics with the sarcasm they deserve. B-

KING CRIMSON:-"Islands" (Atlantic '72):: Just as I was learning to hear past the bullshit they upped the pnte, so fuck 'em. When I feel the need for contemporary chamber music or sexist japes, jazz libre or vers ordinaire, I'll go to the source (s). C

KING CRIMSON: "Larks' Tongues in Aspip" (Atlantic '73):: More appetizing than you'd expect—new lyricist Robert W. PalmerJones and new vocalist John Wetton add roughage to the recipe. But it's still the instrumental stuff that's worth savoring, and not only doesn't it cook, which figures, it doesn't quite jell either. B-

KING CRIMSON: "Starless and Bible Black" (Atlantic '74):: This is as close as this chronologically interesting group has ever come to a good album, or maybe it's as close as Robert Fripp has ever come to dominating this chronologically interesting group. As usual, . things improve markedly when nobody's singing. The lyrics are relatively sharp, but there must be better ways of proving you're not a wimp than casting invective at a "health-food faggot." Unlues you are a wimp, that is. B

KING CRIMSON: "Red" (Atlantic 74):: Grand, powerful, grating and surprisingly lyrical, with words that cast aspersions on NYC (violence you know) and made me like it, or at least hot hate it (virtually a first for the Crims), this does for classical-rock fusion what John McLaughlin's Devotion did for jazz-rock fusion. The secret as usual is that Robert Fripp is playing more—he does remind me of McLaughlin, too, though he prefers to glide where McLaughlin beats his wings. In compensation, Bill Bruford supplies more action than Buddy Miles. Less soul, though—which is why the jazz-rock fusion is more exciting. A-

KING CRIMSON: "USA" (Atlantic' 75):: Since the nearness of death was good for this band, I figured a posthumous live album might even be better, and though lyrics and vocals are still pompous annoyances, these musical themes (iricluding the off-the-cuff "Asbury Park") are among th§ir best. In Central Park they have no choice but to skip the subtlety and turn it up. The excitement thus generated is more Wagner than Little Richard—this record is a case study in the Europeanness of English heavy metal. But that doesn't mean it's not classic! B +

SOFT MACHINE: "Third" (Columbia 70):: Robert Wyatt's light touch imbues these pleasant experiments with their own unique pulse, but only because the music is labeled rock is it hailed as a breakthrough. It does qualify as a change of p^ce—on the group's last album three musicians put 17 titles on two sides, while on this one eight musicians put four on four. But though Mike Ratledge's "Out-BloOdy-Rageous," to choose the most interesting example, brings together convincing approximations of Terry Riley-style modular pianistics and John Coltranestyle modal sax (Hugh Hopper has the bass down perfect), Riley and Coltrane' do it better. Only Wyatt's "Moon In June" is eccentric by the standards of its influences—which must be why it's hard to name them all. B

SOFT MACHINE "Fourth" (Columbia 71):: Having dropped the trance-music distensions for theme-and-variation arrangements (long on the arrangement and short on the variation though they may be), does the band still call this "rock"? It's English jazz, that's all—neither as flawed as you'd fear nor as muscular as its American counterparts. Non-composing saxophonist Elton Dean is the dominant voice, as saxophonists tend to be. He's adequate or better at free blowing, no mean accomplishment, but he's also a little thin in the embouchure, as English saxophonists tend to be. B

SOFT MACHINE: "Six" (Columbia 73):: Karl Jenkirfs, whose horns and keyboards replace Elton Dean's alto, provides the band's best track since "Moon In June"; "The Soft Weed Factor," in which a tiny piano riff builds through dozens (hundreds?) of repititions into a rocking and rolling modular extravaganza. But with Robert Wyatt gone for two albums now, most of the rest is jazz of no discernible inspiration. Mike Ratledge sounds, thinner every time'out—I kept wondering if I'd blown a channel. Maybe he's taking a cue from Jenkins, who makes Dean sound like Gato Barbieri when he picks up his soprano. B-

SOFT MACHINE: "7" (Columbia 74):: What bothered me about Mike Ratledge's thinness on Six was mostly a matter of physical tone, but I had his ideas in the back of my mind as well, and here's why. At.least Mike Oldfield knows how to use a studio. C+ ^