Martin Briley - Fear of the Unknown
#172
By Robbie Rist
1981 Housekeeping
Martin Briley
Fear of the Unknown
Genre: Sophisticated Power Pop With Classical Leanings
Allen’s Rating: 4.75 out of 5
Rating: 4.88 out of 5
Allen’s Highlights:
- Slipping Away
- The Man I Feel
- I Feel Like a Milkshake
- First to Know
- Heart of Life
- A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing
- I Don't Feel Better
- More of the Same
- One Step Behind
- Fear of the Unknown
(That’s the whole album, folks)
Allen has got to stop giving me these softballs.
This is one of my favorite records ever.
I knew of Briley from his cool hit Salt In My Tears which is an incredibly great slab of commercial pop music with a wonderful melody, clever wordplay and top notch playing.
His album One Night With A Stranger is also quite the amazing ride.
But it is an exceptionally ‘commercial’ affair.
As evidenced by Fear Of The Unknown.
Which I bought after One Night.
Fear is way better.
But you are gonna have to spend a few listens on it.
There is too much to ingest on a first listen.
Briley is what happens when a Beatles obsessive moves up and out of his neighborhood of heroes and starts making his own version of it.
Those sixties influenced melodies are all over this thing.
But there is also an almost Queenesque approach to the guitars and chords with lots of fun twists and turns.
The words are actually ABOUT things.
Some of them pretty dark.
The Heart Of Life maybe hits a little too close to home for me. It’s a personal indictment of male independence that belies, underneath all of that ‘manliness’, there are those of us who are little more than terrified little boys.
‘Don’t say you’re gonna love me forever
Even though I wish it could be so
Don’t give me no cliches from your scenario
Forever is a long long time
I could hit forty and just lose my mind
You say you’re tough and you never bruise
But would you want to be standing in my shoes?‘
Yikes.
It’s not all peans to male insecurity.
He gets hilariously metaphysical on I Feel Like A Milkshake (covered by The Monkees at some point in the 90s).
It’s also, I think, one of the only pop songs in music history to rhyme ‘gravy stains’ and ‘vericose veins’.
He gets aware that things may not be all they seem on The First To Know.
Wonders why freedom isn’t free on I Don’t Feel Better
Every song (to this reviewers ears anyway) has multiple clever turns of phrase, musical left turns that make you want to go back and listen again and incredibly intricate guitar playing that, again, nods toward Brian May but also is somehow more sophisticated. Like if Queen allowed themselves to go deeper into their classical side than their rawk side.
Now the downside.
Only one really.
I think this was cut on the cheap.
The drums are papery and flat.
It doesn’t leap out at you like the production of his next album.
It made it a challenging relationship for me. But one I am so glad I had the faith in things I like to listen to it enough times where now, 30 years later, I still put this thing on a few times a year.
It’s that good.
To me anyway.
If this turns out to be your cup of meat, check out his more Beatle style stuff with The Liverpool Echo, Briley and Engel and evening a prog band called Mandrake.
If classically influenced guitar pop is your thing, you should dig this.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0nOeAB75C5jiIRMHc1TWHK?si=DUaHHRRJSQej6lr2pZpM-Q
Allen’s notes:
I have a long and storied history with this record, from reading about the first time in Trouser Press and finding it at a local record store for cheap to mentioning it at a recording session with Rob only to watch him get up, go to his van in the parking lot and come back with a CD burn of this album. Rob’s not an easy sell on what constitutes greatness but the fact that he loved this album as much as I…I was blown away. I really wanted to review it myself, but Mr. Rist did a bang up job. And I just had to say, man I adore this record.
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