ADRIAN BELEW

Ah, Adrian Belew - you might recognize this guy's name from his work with David Bowie, Talking Heads, and especially the 80's New Wave version of King Crimson (a band which he still fronts today - go out now and get The Power To Believe if you haven't already), but for some reason, not a whole lot of people know about his solo career, and that's pretty much a shame.  While it doesn't exactly reach the great heights of his current band or anything like that, his albums can quite often be just as good, rewarding you with really interesting ideas thrown into a Beatles-influenced guitar-pop format (this guy, believe it or not, is able to impressively imitate the vocals of both Lennon and McCartney).  He's also fantastic at creating neat effects with his instrument - being in the same band with Robert Fripp, he had better damn well be able to.  And his melodies, while probably not a strength, are sometimes top-notch too.

Sure, Belew ain't the most original songwriter out there (influences from the aforementioned Fab Four, Bowie, Crimson, and Zappa are evident), and his lyrics sometimes get a bit preachy and straightforward (with his social commentary about how people are killing rhinos and destroying the environment, for a couple examples), but his considerable creative strengths and how he imitates his influences on albums makes up for it.  And back to the overlooked nature of his solo career - quite a bit of his discography is actually out-of-print right now, which is something I just don't understand.  Maybe it's too experimental for the pop fans and too pop for the experimental weirdos?  In any case, I'll try and find more of these albums for review on this page, Lone Rhino and Mr. Music Head in particular.  Until then, here's the stuff I have (i.e. in MP3 format, at least) so far.

--Nick Karn

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YOUNG LIONS (1990)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: Men In Helicopters, Pretty Pink Rose, Young Lions.  LOW POINTS: I Am What I Am.

Adrian's first album of the 90's has got to be, in my opinion at least, one of the classic examples of an artist who's so blatantly short on new material, but makes the best of it and actually pieces together a strong album from what he does have anyway.  To begin with, he throws in a more slick remake of King Crimson's classic "Heartbeat" (for seemingly no reason other than space filler), a Traveling Wilburys cover ("Not Alone Anymore"), a guitar-dominated spoken word piece that can't really be called that much of a song ("I Am What I Am"), and brings in his master David Bowie to write and sing lead vocals on not one, but two, songs (and keep in mind these were recorded during Bowie's supposedly wretched 84-93 period). Combined with the other five songs here, the album only comes to about 38 minutes, and yet for such a 'tossoff' effort, Young Lions somehow comes really close to being very excellent.

The quality here is somewhat helped by the 'normal' half of the album (the one that doesn't have borderline non-songs, remakes, covers or collaborations), which is for the most part pretty darn great.  Witness the opening title track, with its' incredibly addictive tribal-rhythm and catchy 'ahhhhOOOO' chanting, not to mention the typically entertaining Crimsonian guitar lines and uplifting melody twists thrown in there.  Or the snappy 50's-styled throwback "Looking For A UFO" (particularly because of the great guitar rhythm and 'nagging in a good way' vintage hook).  Don't forget the minor pop gem of "Small World", either - another song with a tribal influence probably too bouncy and 'fun' to be on any Crimson album (except maybe Lizard, of course), but on an Adrian Belew 'normal guitar pop' effort, it fits right in!  'Ohhhh it's a small world / on a two-inch TV screen' - that's a melody that might get into your head after awhile.

The best of this group (and probably the entire album) for me, however, would be "Men In Helicopters".  Yeah, the lyrics about men killing dolphins, putting a hole in the ozone, and how God 'took away the sun' may be just a little on the side of preachy (even though I wholeheartedly agree with the intent behind them), but is that melody ever gorgeous or what?  Just the way Adrian sings 'oohhhh the legacy... we're leaving behiiiiiiind...' is enough to get me on his side, and the piano/guitar riff that opens the song up is a really, really nice addition, too.  But of course, after that and "Small World", "Phone Call From The Moon" kinda grinds the momentum to a halt a bit.  It's a slightly dull blues-oriented piece that sounds exactly like something you would find on a typical 'guitar virtuoso' album, but at least the solitary atmosphere and spoken/sung delivery of the 'touring makes me miss my family' type lyrics works at least, so it's not all that bad.

But there's still that other half of the album that most obviously looks like 'short on material' syndrome.  True, the "Heartbeat" remake is pointless in being weaker and more slick than the original (plus there's that cheating 'remake' factor and the lacking of KC's distinct instrumental personalities) but hey, it's still got the same great melody as before, so it won't kill you to hear it again.  Plus, "Not Alone Anymore" is given a really nice vocal delivery and a 'nighttime' vibe that helps overcome the whole insubstantialness of it, and even "I Am What I Am", despite those ridiculously repetitive spoken-word lyrics and rather half assed Discipline groove, does have some fiery guitar work in points.  That one's still something of a weak spot on here, though.

You know what's most surprising to me, though?  The fact that the Bowie 'collaborations' that round the album off are actually really good (again, remember how bad a period that was for Ziggy).  The first one, "Pretty Pink Rose", probably has the strongest and most distinct upbeat melodies on here (that 'take me to the heart, to the heart, to the heart, of the pretty pink rose' refrain is irresistible!), with more neat soloing and riffing, while the closing "Gunman", a dark and paranoid, almost ugly-sounding ranting (in an amusing way - I like those 'wrappers and cans' bits!), is simply pure twisted Bowie, and yet it doesn't sound at all out of place amongst the other material.  Maybe because of the guitar playing?  Anyway, these songs and the other highlights on here are enough to push this to a low 8 in spite of the occasional lack of inspiration and ideas.  Or maybe even partly because of it, as strange as that sounds.

OVERALL RATING: 8

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INNER REVOLUTION (1992)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: The War In The Gulf Between Us, Only A Dream.  LOW POINTS: Everything.

At this point in his career, Adrian Belew snuck into a telephone booth, morphed into a pointless Beatles ripoff alter-ego and bored the listeners to sleep with his dull melodies.  Or at least that's how certain critics would probably tell it in a particularly exaggerated way.  While it is true that the Beatles influences are highly noticeable here (the album title even sounds very psychedelic), I doubt this album is really any more guilty of that than a lot of modern pop out there.  I guess that comparison probably comes mostly from several of the songs having a McCartney-style lightweight vibe to them in the melodies, but there's still the fascinating guitar effects and slightly twisted ideas that I enjoyed so much on Young Lions and latter period Crimson.  The only problem I see with Inner Revolution is that the vocal melodies are quite often just there - these songs definitely sound nice and entertaining while they're playing, and you might even be able to remember some of them after completion, but I often feel like they don't make as much of an impression on me as they should.

It's hard for me to deny there are neat ideas here upon further listens, though.  For instance, the piano pop of "Birds", with beautiful falsetto singing and the curious way horns keep shifting from speaker to speaker, and that mysterious guitar effect during the verses of "Heaven's Bed" which sounds like a synth to me (not to mention its' seamless transition into the jangly verses).  The title track, in addition to the trippy Easterny vibe it has (especially in its' psychedelic intro), has a distorted, rocking bite to the guitar sound that I don't think I've heard before, "Standing In The Shadow" has a cool tone achieved with what sounds like Adrian scraping the strings with something, and "This Is What I Believe In" has such an ear-catching wobbly riff that you may not even notice how efficiently it changes time signatures.  Again, not a lot of the actual hooks are that great (I'll be damned if I can remember how "I Walk Alone" even goes, but I marked down in my head that it was moody, so I'll take my own word for it) but the interesting touches to at least a few songs are worth noting.

There are a couple exceptions to that lack of great vocal hooks shortcoming, though, and these are probably the best for me.  Now, "Only A Dream" and "The War In The Gulf Between Us" aren't exactly immortal pop classics or anything like that, or even up to the standards of the last album's highlights, but they're very nice.  The former one follows the 'preachy social commentary crossed with uplifting melody' pattern of "Men In Helicopters" with a contemplative 'what in the world is happening here?' bouncy part (which means I give it a big thumbs up), and the latter is a somewhat effective pop singalong about his recent divorce.  It's actually one of those rare times the album crosses into convincing emotional territory, with a resigned, but thoughtful, quality to the lyrics ('Cause something in my heart has taken to the wind, and nothing I can do will bring it back again, nobody ever wins the war in the gulf between us')

What about those Beatle influences?  Well, "Big Blue Sun" definitely reminds me of a relentlessly upbeat McCartney track with string arrangements (and a really good emulation it is), and although it's really melodically bland to me, "Everything" at least has the novelty of Adrian pulling off vocal imitations of both McCartney (the verse) and Lennon (the 'all I wanna doooooooo' chorus falsetto).  And is it me, or does that main riff to the closer "Member Of The Tribe" sound like a really sped up version of a riff also appearing in "Lady Madonna"?  Fun and energetic, though, and that's a really friggin' great song to rip a melody off of if you're gonna go that route.  Really, though, there aren't that many overt references to the Fabs - a lot of this is just power pop stuff with great guitar and occasionally catchy melodies that doesn't have any connection to one specific influence ("I'd Rather Be Right Here" sums that up nicely). But the important thing is that this is a good, enjoyable album.  Not classic or excellent, but was that really the point?

OVERALL RATING: 7

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HERE (1994)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: Burned By The Fire We Make, Never Enough, Brave New World.  LOW POINTS: Here.

Hey, another interesting slightly experimental guitar pop album from our favorite rhino activist (and the last one just before the reformation of King Crimson Mark... ehh... I dunno).  By this point, he's playing all the instruments and noises himself, and remember the 'social commentary' aspect of his lyric writing I mentioned in the intro?  Well, Here might be the culmination of that, as close to every song on here seems to be an observation on either some social issue or an aspect of his social life that he wants to share with the listener.  But forget the lyrics - the melodies on here are generally a step up from the often unmemorable Inner Revolution, and so is the song quality, at least slightly.  The end result is probably one of the most representative albums to get if you want to know what his solo work is all about, if I may make such a statement without actually hearing them all.

For starters, he's still making clear that he may have a shrine to Paul McCartney somewhere in his backyard on the ballads "Peace On Earth" (not necessarily in the lyrics, but in the melody and vocal intonations - the way he sings 'the day is blue, there's nothing to do' is dead on) and "Dream Life" is practically his own personal "Yesterday", at least in the feel I get from it.  "I See You" is something of a really good life-affirming pop tune about someone you're so infatuated you see them everywhere you go and such - he probably wrote it about being homesick on tour or something.  There's also psychedelic touches on the delicate, though somewhat aimless and repetitive, "Fly", where he includes subtle sound effects in the background and giving his acoustic guitar an almost harp-sounding tone.  Plus, Eastern embellishments show up again on the rocker "Survival In The Wild" - uh oh, another social commentary song!  And that bassline sounds like "Taxman"!  KILL THAT BEATLES RIPOFF!!!!!  Kidding, of course.

Ah, those social commentary songs.  You know, I may call them preachy and straightforward, and they pretty much are, but he can make them damn beautiful as well.  Look no further than "Burned By The Fire We Make", which should be a model for a perfectly flowing acoustic pop song, with a captivating chord sequence, effective vocal switches between falsetto and his 'normal' voice, and the moving 'what a shaaaaaame' chorus as it starts to rock a bit more.  Who cares if the lyrics are lines like 'this is the nature of the human race, to kill off anything that gets in our way'?  But actually, believe it or not, he can get optimistic about mankind's progress, as shown by another wonderfully uplifting pop song "Brave New World", where he discusses how exciting it is that this generation has such sophisticated technology (and I just love that guitar solo, too - probably one of his best ever).

Another great highlight on here is probably "Never Enough", a really darn catchy gem which has a feel of lust running through the lyrics ('come and kiss me again and again, I won't stop until you tell me when') and vocal delivery, and watch out for that really great bassline and bursts of soloing in between verses, a very nice touch to the arrangement.  There's also the upbeat opener "May 1, 1990" (yeah, there are a lot of upbeat songs on here), featuring a mysterious atmospheric intro and a simple but poignant acoustic verse leading into an enigmatic chorus (what changed inside Adrian Belew on that date, this listener is curious to know for no reason whatsoever?)

Despite all these pop pleasures, I can't quite give this album an 8, as on the remaining songs Adrian shows a Crimson-like tendency to be frustratingly inconsistent, particularly toward the end.  "Futurevision" is particularly a really dumb song, with its' ugly guitar riff, distorted vocal tone, and cheesy vocal delivery that almost sounds like Adrian's rapping his social commentary lyrics.  That's not a good thing, although I'll admit it does work surprisingly well as a guilty pleasure.  In addition, the title track is pretty much a droning, monotonous bore of a slow-paced moody song that completely forgets to provide a melody, and the mostly orchestrated closer "Postcard From Holland" goes overboard with the stupid lightweightedness ('stood by the tall ships, and stepped in some old Dutch dogshit'??? and the use of 'cookies' in the lyrics??)  At least he was smart and kept it really short though.  Ignore those silly misfires and you have yourself something really good.

OVERALL RATING: 7.5

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OP ZOP TOO WAH (1997)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: Modern Man Hurricane Blues, Six String, All Her Love Is Mine.  LOW POINTS: Sky Blue Red Bird Green House, High Wire Guitar.

Hmm... seems like Adrian was in a pretty artsy mood around the time of this album, as I guess you could call Op Zop Too Wah the closest thing to a concept piece you'll ever find in his discography.  Well, I'll be damned if I can actually find a specific concept, but just the flow of these 21 tracks (his typical experimental pop songs interspersed with short segue numbers) has the feel of something that should be listened to all the way through to get something important out of it.  Unfortunately, that idea doesn't quite work - a lot of these interludes just get in the way of the more developed normal length songs as slight-sounding annoyances, and even among the longer ones, there seems to be a much too high amount of filler here.  Personally, I don't think it's a coincidence that the album has this kind of setup, as it reminds me a lot of how Crimson's THRAK was organized (i.e. experimental noise followed by pop song with occasional interlude).  What else do you expect from a bandmade of a madman that came up with four parts to "Larks' Tongues In Aspic"?

The similarities to THRAK also find its' way into some of the actual material.  I swear I can hear melody fragments of "Dinosaur" in "I Remember How To Forget", plus the ending certainly sounds similar to that song's frequent Mellotron 'soundscapes'.  Plus, the pointless stripped down "What Do You Know" songs greatly remind me of the pointless stripped down "Inner Garden" songs.  Deja vu all over again?  And psst... don't tell anyone, but Adrian just reused the lyrics from the first verse of his own "All Her Love Is Mine" again for "The Power To Believe" (though admittedly both of them have their own distinct feel, and the former song is a strong moody highlight on this album, with those eerie guitar effects and quiet, near-spoken chanting).   Shame on this guy for raiding his own solo career for ideas!

Regardless of the presentation weaknesses here, the stretch of the first 12 tracks or so comes out very strong for the most part.  I already mentioned "All Her Love Is Mine" as a great song, and there are more highs where that came from.  The opening "Of Bow And Drum", while maybe sounding a bit ugly on first listen with its' piercing guitar sound, has an eventually addictive and incessant in a good way percussive attack, and even the first 'interlude' "Word Play Drum Beat" is effective with the way the dissonant drum pounding and vocal delivery work together (the way he and some backing vocalists chant stuff like 'tear.. GAS... gun.. FIRE... fire... ARM... pipe... BOMB..' is hilarious).  "Six String" successfully marries his guitar style to a wonderfully pleasant country rock background (that vocal melody is just so likeable), and the title track sounds like, um, amusement park music to me.  I guess that's kinda cool.

Amongst the other short, but pleasant fillery segues in this stretch, we also have the very pretty piano/acoustic ballad "Time Waits" that actually manages to throw in backwards noises without them getting in the way, and especially "Modern Man Hurricane Blues", which I'd go as far to say is actually my favorite on the album.  In addition to the great song title, it's probably one of the most schizophrenic blues songs (if it can even be called blues) that I've ever heard, as the main slide-sounding guitar riff never really finds a rhythm to hold on to during the 'tapping' verses, and just as it starts to quiet down, it goes into a constant barrage of borderline atonal drumming that somehow holds together in spite of itself, not unlike a hurricane - or modern man, I guess.  Throughout it all, it's just so entertaining and interesting - one of the most effective creative ideas he's ever had.

After that, though, the album really loses steam.  The last 20 or so minutes aren't a complete waste by any means, but the segues get more inconsequential, and plus there's stuff like "Something To Do" and "Beautiful" that any competent songwriter could do in their sleep, without much distinctiveness.  Not only that, but there are also experimental lows - the instrumental "High Wire Guitar" has both distractingly obnoxious crowd noises and a high pitched guitar tone that sounds like a cheap Casio imitating a violin, and the repetitive rhythm and guitar line "Sky Blue Red Bird Green House" foreshadows the more pointless moments of The ConstruKction Of Light.  At least this stretch is redeemed a little by a despairing McCartney-styled ballad in "The Ruin After The Rain" (a little in the vein of "For No One") followed curiously by an uptempo, optimistic rocker to close things off in "On", but the damage has already been done.  As with Here, cut out the filler (and there's more of it here at 55 minutes than usual), and this would be considerably more successful.

OVERALL RATING: 7

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