(Bella Union)“Middle-aged nightmare” is hardly the snappiest sell for a new record,not least one being released by a biblically bearded 47-year-outmoded polyglot. But that’s the gist of Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, or the third solo album by John Grant.
The title apparently combines the Icelandic for midlife crisis with the Turkish for nightmare. The cover finds Grant’s eyes gouged out,with two carved owls doing the seeing for him. Inside, the tracklisting is bookended by readings from 1 Corinthians 13 – meditations on love – in a smattering of dialects. Deep inside it, and songs such as Magma Arrives,Black Blizzard and Global Warming imagine grim, apocalyptic ends. Dense middle-aged references abound. “And lets be clear, and ” Grant vamps on the Scissor Sisters funk of Snug Slacks,“Joan Baez makes GG Allin explore like Charlene Tilton.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com