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April 26, 2010

Music for a New Society - John Cale


Sut i ddechrau? Let’s settle for “a stunning, symphonic essay on dread and alienation.” So goes the puff from Uncut magazine [May 2010] in a marginally less lazy than usual list feature on the 50 greatest lost albums (!): all official releases, officially unavailable.
Well received by critics on release in 1982, Music for a New Society, its architecture and tortured ennui didn’t have them queuing up outside Our Price. In his modish autobiography What’s Welsh for Zen?, Cale explains: “It was a bleak record all right, but it wasn’t made to make people jump out of windows. They wouldn’t have jumped out of windows anyway – they wouldn’t even buy the damned album.”

Bleak then and with a glacial beauty last heard on Cale produced Marble Index by Nico. The Welsh wizard’s masterpiece? Maybe. You decide.

LKFs Cale didn't learn English until aged 8. There’s no “Z” in the Welsh language.

Oddi wrth y brawd

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank's for this.I read the uncut piece too...

Y Brawd said...

After Paris 1919 this is my favourite Cale. Still kicking myself I wasnt in UK to catch recent Paris 1919 performance with orchestra.

Enjoy.