Album Review: Be Bop Deluxe "Modern Music"

[NOTE:  This review originally appeared at Epinions]


the future was then Jul 08 '05

Author's Product Rating


Pros
percy b. shelley with a gibson GS hollowbody

Cons
so sweet it might make your teeth hurt

The Bottom Line
there is truly nothing like this music, even if you think there is. it bears a very close listen very well, better than many other in the genre

Full Review i can't explain to you why i love this record - you kind of had to be there...

actually, you kind of had to be eleven, with a cool big brother who had got you into their previous album two summers before. you kind of had to have been steeped in said older brother's remarkable acid and prog rock collection, and family night to the tune of 'the white album' by candlelight. you kind of had to find it at the public library, and you kind of had to be in a confused state of being pre-teen and proto-punk. you also had to be singularly unimpressed by david bowie, and prepared to ingest something somewhat lower-concept aesthetically yet higher-concept musically. [and as heretic as this may sound, i tend to think be bop deluxe's bill nelson was to bowie as van gogh was to gachet.] [by the way, i'm more impressed by bowie now than i was then.]

to the untrained ear, be bop deluxe in general and 'modern music' in particular may seem anachronistic, even cloying. it is an accurate depiction of a certain mood in popular culture before the ramones made everything previous moot: a time when filigree, flourish and grand guignol were necessary stylistic elements to forward-thinking rock and roll. aptly, retro-futurism is a recurring theme in the songs of be bop deluxe ["flash gordon's ghost will never die/it's just a flash across the sky" - 'honeymoon on mars']. nelson, a guitar-twisting muso in the same school as technophiles jimi hendrix and tom scholtz, was acutely aware that today's forward-looking sounds would be tomorrow's quaint chamber exercises; yet, undaunted, he and famed producer john leckie [various beatles, xtc, etc.] managed to weave together a sonic landscape that stands up remarkably well in the digital age.

from the opening track, 'orphans of babylon', we are welcomed to a sprightly mid-tempo anthem with nelson's signature "seagull's cry" guitar and a soaring vocal describing incongruently world-weary themes - in short, formulaic glam rock, yet rendered in sharp relief by superior musicianship and a touch of gentle irony. "kiss me and load my gun/go put your nylons on/i'll have you as they run tonight" might ring overwrought and saccharine to contemporary ears - or, perhaps the younger generation has re-discovered a sense of ironic sentimentality and sensuality as exemplified in wayne campbell wiping a way a tear at the end of 'bohemian rhapsody'. to eleven year old ears in 1976, it was something of a revelation. the elegant stereophonic spread of the tracks, simon fox's precise and jazzy drumming, the ornate layers of guitars over charles tumahai's solid and substantial bass phrasings, all candy-coated by the shimmering synthesizer of andrew clark - one waited for something to fall out, some imperfection to bring it up short. yet nelson's tenor is vibrant, soulful, and unfettered, and the words, if coyly fey, are evocative. "so kiss the truth goodbye/we thrive upon your lies/we've got no alibis tonight" - nelson describes an intoxicated and intoxicating world seen through rose-colored starship captain's goggles, where we are world-weary paperback
super-spies yet it's somehow sexy and fun.

'twilight capers' is, by contrast, a dark and portentious prog rock chorale. "all the wild ones keep their shades pulled down/they hide their dead eyes from the ground/they starve their souls with murder proud/beneath the shroud, beneath the shroud" is quite clearly a paean to the hordes of whey-faced glam fans immortalized on 'night creatures' on their first album, 'axe victim'. it's like 'nightclubbing' meets william butler yeats. the chordal
modalities are churchlike and sonorous. then, suddenly, in typical BBD fashion, we are swirled through "grey corridors of melting ice/in the cold golden claw of autumn nights" to a...calypso party???...for an even number of measures in which we are briefly told: "we are the dazzling phantoms/of dark misfortune", and the scene changes yet again to a swirl of retro synthesizers and sped-up echoplexed alien voices. chiaroscuro, incongruity, surrealism, all against a cinematic backdrop; all true to form for the songwriter who brought us an ode to jean cocteau on BBD's second album, 'futurama'.

'kiss of light' has the same reggae-flavored drop and swing that ruled british pop such as 10CC in the mid 70's, and was immortalized in the eagles' 'hotel california', but this song isn't dope-laden, but rather sparkling and enervated. marimba even features briefly in the background between punchy drum breaks and flashy guitar and moog harmonies. "the woman of moon flew into my room last night/she tortured my body and made me feel sorry though i thought i was right" captures the essence of the song - being swept away by sensuality, an almost mystical surrender to a mythic female, a gustav klimt painting with a back-beat.

'the bird charmers destiny' could very well be elton circa 'madman across the water' - a brooding piano and a crooning vocal evoking a hans christian andersen folktale version of doomed love. the track's brevity steers it away from maudlin sentimentality into the vibrancy of a very small art deco print, or a pattern on japanese silk.

'the gold at the end of my rainbow' pours it on...i hesitate to quote any of the lyrics..."my sword is in my hand/and i will fight at your command"...but there is a lilt to nelson's delivery that supports the contention of many fans that such overblown lyrics were delivered with a pronounced
twinkle in his eye, especially in light of his well-developed dystopianism in his later writing. with singing guitar again reminiscent of hendrix's 'may this be love' and the rhythm section's fluid and graceful changes, the band's musicianship pulls the song back from the brink of absurdity, not for the last time. 'bring back the spark' seems little more than a scene and costume change, although the juxtaposition of a plea for love with the fear of apocalypse is rather striking - "they say the end of the world is near/they say no one survives, but have no fear, it's not this year" - the world may be falling apart, but lovers only think of each other, also a recurring BBD theme.

side two is the rock opera complete with refrain, the pop anthem and title track 'modern music', which starts out with a floydesque pan of radio noise, humorously interspersed with the hoped-for hit singles [in britain, not here] from previous albums. [how many times has this hand been played? 'wish you were here' by the floyd...'burn it down' by dexys...it seems irresistable as a rock device.] once again the wistful dystopian nostalgic sings: "modern music on my radio/another station and another show/if only i could let my feelings flow." it's all new, all now, and none of it real. it's no wonder i've listened to this song daily for the past few months. it could be a song written today by, say, death cab for cutie. 'dancing in the moonlight', like 'bring back the spark', seems like filler, scene change music, but serves a useful purpose as a springboard for the dazzling [and dazzlingly brief] psych-glam echocandy confection of 'honeymoon on mars', which could have played as a guided by voices song - it's short enough, it's got a science fiction theme, it's grandiose, there's effects on the vocals.

'dance of the uncle sam humanoids' is fairly much like it sounds - out of the gate we have again the look-askance on
this alienated modern life - "this jet-age life is getting worse/i'm feeling half a universe away" - then focus is brought to bear on the disappointing US tour which inspired much of the darker mood of the album: "i left my home some time ago to fight the creatures of the USA" - so, the radioactive mutants and killer robots are actually americans, right, i get it. then after a few more lyrical turnarounds the band gets into a repetitive funk vs. weekend golf classic theme music groove - one is slightly reminded of 'it' at the end of 'the lamb lies down...' by genesis. in the background behind a stuttering riff we hear "step right this way, bill, i'd like you to meet bruce, our new public relations man...", and then
the scream of a siren straight out of a new york city soundscape. maybe the finger sandwiches were too small on the US tour. anyway, it's fun in its way, and doesn't last long enough to get boring before the somewhat less sprightly, heavier sounding refrain of the title track, followed by a falsetto echoed wail and a bit of the john peel radio hour's break for weather before one of the greatest rock tracks of the 1970's breaks in over - what else? - a cowbell: 'forbidden lovers'. what else is there - escapism, taboo, romance, danger, life of a touring musician, all rolled into a neat package with tasty breaks. in this century such gestures seem dated, but perhaps as they were originally envisioned, we can enjoy them as retro-futurism, the glamour of an imagined future that never was and never will be. pure fantasy. ear candy. but, with a poignant edge of pain: "wake up in a strange bed/pearly white and proud red/photograph my wild head/shoot me to the stars..."

then another anthemic chordal swoosh of synthesizers into the almost embarrassingly epic 'terminal street', complete with church chimes. yes, it's a song about death, more yeats meets bowie. the guitar more stings than rings, and the song fades out in wails of feedback and a collapse of drums. then shockingly the finish, a krishna-flavored nod to harrisonesque spirituality in 'makethe music magic', all faux-brit-raga, yet somehow...delightful, naive, harmless, in its lack of guile, somehow touching and transportive.

there's some extra tracks on the CD that are jokey out-takes familiar to anyone who checked out their vinyl retrospective 'the best of and the rest of'. save them for stocking gifts, we'll have a laugh about them over a bubble tea at the spaceport. flash gordon's ghost will never die...

Recommended
Yes

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