Nick Franglen of Lemon Jelly produced the last album, Hobosapiens and what you got was a giddy slice of whimsical tomfoolery clearly inspired by all the pro-tool wizardry that was suddenly made available to the old fella. It was playful and occasionally inspired but it was a naturally placid release made all the more gentle by the departure of guitars and the arrival of Fraglen’s jelly world of computer software and spacehoppers. This time round Cale is assisted by Mickey Petralia of Beck, Rage Against The Machine, Dandy Warhols and Eels fame and the result is by contrast a more analogue affair beefed up by a bevvy of lusty electric guitars and a more live-approach to recording. If you’ve heard the single ‘Perfect’ then you’ll know exactly what I mean. Thought up and composed almost entirely in the dressing room, ‘Perfect’ is clearly the response of a more instant, impulsive and direct rock consciousness, Cale even conceding the fact that it’s the perfect ‘knucklehead’ song – whatever that means. ‘Perfect’ is angular, robust and teeming with a traditional garage energy not a million miles away from the likes of Graham Coxon’s ‘Freakin’Out’ or The Feature’s ‘That’s The Way It’s Meant To Be’. It’s also probably the best thing on the album. In fact, it’s not immediately obvious that it’s Cale at all hearing it as I did the first time around in isolation and without recourse to some of the more oblique and experimental indulgences on the album like ‘Brotherman’, ‘Woman’ and ‘Hush’.
That said, ‘Perfect’ doesn’t necessarily reflect the rest of the album which moves by turns from the gritty and phlegmatic ‘ForARide’ and the graceful alt-country of ‘InAFlood’ to the tender, fantastic otherworlds of the beautiful ‘Satisfied’ and ‘Graveldrive’. The rockiness persists with the heavy Kravitz riffing of ‘Sold-Motel’ and ‘Turn The Lights On’ but it’s a bit of a non sequitur when you pitch it against the ticklish avant-garde of tracks like ‘Mailman (TheLyingSong) which redefines Cale as rightful king of oddity.
There’s naturally a tendency to view anything Cale does as the offshoot of genius and engage with unreasonable overstatement with every word uttered in his name, but as long as Cale remains as inspired by others as others are undoubtedly inspired by him, the old man remains a disgracefully imaginative artist.