And now for another installment of this project dissecting Elvis Costello's 500 Essential Albums.
#2 is David Ackles self-titled debut album. EC calls this album "The Road To Cairo" which is the first track, which I'm quite enjoying! I've never heard of David Ackles, which was one of the motivations behind this project.
So far, it's kind of like the kind of stuff you'd hear being played in a darkened bar in a noir crime movie from the 70s. I'm really digging this first song. It's got some bluesy feels, a little bit of rock, and I love any time an organ can get itself in there.
The second track is a lot more mellow, but I'm not hating it by any means. It's pretty sad, that's for sure.
Third track in, this is a really sad sounding album in general, not that that's ever a bad thing. I'm at the point where I'm doubting this project because what if there's nothing to say about the music. I'm no music critic. Also, this song has really sad lyrics about memories and reminiscing...but also has instrumentals that sometimes sound like a circus...
Jesus Christ, every single song on this album is so sad...David Ackles was like the Morrisey of the late '60s. This guy has a stellar voice though.
What a Happy Day is a little more uplifting but still has a real somber feeling. I'm definitely seeing his influence on Elvis Costello, especially lyrically.
I'm on to Down River, which was apparently his big song. According to Wikipedia, Elvis Costello and Elton John chose this song to do as a duet on Elvis' TV show because they were both such big fans. I'm definitely enjoying it. There's a real conversational feel to a lot of these songs. Like each song is being sung to one person and everyone else is just listening in. That's most evident in this song.
I spaced out a little during Laissez-Faire, but I noticed my toes tapping the whole time.
Lotus Man has really great basslines. In fact, all of these songs have had really great bass lines. The bass player is the real hero of this album, save for David's voice.
His Name is Andrew starts telling me the story of a guy working in a canning factory and I'm already sad. This is definitely not a "windows down" record, I can tell you that. That's not bad mind you, but man, you need to be in a certain mood for this record. I just looked up the lyrics to confirm...he's definitely saying "God is Dead"....phew man.
Last song...Be My Friend. I'm sure it's about a man who is just begging every person to be his friend and then them being so bummed out because he just wants to talk about pancreatic cancer for like...a really long time. Ok, so I'm not exactly right, but surprise surprise, it's not exactly about two pals going to a ball game either. Although, it does sound a little hopeful. Like, perhaps, being this guy's friend is something that acted as a bright spot in his very very grim life. I like this little acoustic guitar solo at about 3:20-ish. It's really good.
I'm looking at the list....it's alphabetical by artist and there's a second album by this guy...I'll have to wait to do that another day to avoid driving into a forest and just....sitting silently until I starve to death. And don't get it twisted, I dug the album, I really did. It's just very sad.
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