Aural Fixations

JOHN CALE
Hobosapiens
(Or)
John Cale has had an extremely diverse career over the past 40 years, creating everything from avant garde compositions with his mentor LaMonte Young and groundbreaking rock & roll with the Velvet Underground to various experimental ventures, classical scores and postpunk rock (before punk was born even). Along the way he occasionally makes a pop record. In some ways, this is my favorite Cale music—when he deliberately imposes an accessible structure on his work it often results in a project even more distinctive than usual for a man whose music sounds like nobody's but his. Hobosapiens, his first overtly "pop" album since 1996's Walking On Locusts, isn't his most radical experiment with the form—fans of Peter Gabriel's recent work will probably find this appealing—but it's one of his most satisfying. Electronics fill out the arrangements, especially the rhythm tracks, but this is certainly not dance music—the synth basslines and programmed percussion support the tunes rather than overwhelm them. Judicious use of samples enlivens the cuts without being intrusive; few artists use electronics as organically as Cale. The synths bring a lush appeal to his stately melodies, elegant singing and enigmatic lyrics, giving odd songs like "Zen" (which appears to about the relationship of art to the 21st century) and the catchy "Things" (which may be about a couple about to commit a crime, have sex or both) a warmth that keeps them from being off-putting. Not that Cale is ever deliberately obtuse—he's inviting us into his universe, not shutting us out. If he's dropping the names of painters and philosophers in "Magritte" and "Archimedes," it's because this is where his thoughts lie, not because he's trying to show off his education. Besides, the wit of lines like "The milk of human kindness has curdled in your cup/You see me staring at it and tell me to shut up" ("Twilight Zone") speaks for itself. Like many a smart tunesmith, though, he sometimes strips his intentions down to the bone, resulting in simpler, more open cuts like the gorgeous "Over Her Head" and the blatantly hooky U.S. bonus track "Set Me Free." Hobosapiens isn't as easy an album to love as, say, a Jellyfish record, but it's still intelligent, creative pop music that won't take nearly as much effort as you might think to appreciate.

Some copies of Hobosapiens come with 5 Tracks, an EP of tunes from the same sessions that are as good as the songs that made the original cut. Michael Toland [buy it]