John Martyn - Glorious Fool
#444
September 1 1981
John Martyn
Glorious Fool
Genre: Singer Songwriter discvovers…drums.
3.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Amsterdam
Didn’t Do That
Glorious Fool, while not a concept album, plays like it’s going to take you on a journey. It opens with a hypnotic Bon Iver-falsetto track that draws you in but that’s like an overture. An introduction. You bought this thing and you aren’t going to get up and turn it off immediately. This isn’t the age of streaming, you are going to give it a chance.
And then the pounding drums of “Amsterdam” come in and you pick up the sleeve to see who played on this and, lo and behold, it’s produced by Phil Collins. Well, that makes sense. Also, there’s that line about watching a kid drowning and…is that a reference to the myth from “In the Air Tonight”?
For a “singer/songwriter” record, Martyn and Collins have doubled down on rhythms and mood and I’m not sure that’s what we come to Martyn for.
There’s a lot of mood on this record and it feels like it was created in the studio. That the songs were improvised not written.
That’s not a bad thing but good, catchy songs does it not make. The title track tries to be an indictment on Reagan but it falls flat under the weight of it’s own import.
As does the rest of the record. (Although I did fall under the jazz spell of “Didn’t Do That” and “Please Fall In Love With Me”)
I’ve come full circle, as does this album.
Martyn’s record is a challenge inasmuch as it’s more soundscapes and rhythms and that’s probably due to Phil’s influence. “Collinsfluence!” He’ll do the same thing on a couple Adam Ant tracks on Strip. But, because Adam wants to write songs that sell records, it sort of works there.
This is not an album you buy. It’s an album you TALK ABOUT buying.
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