Album Review

Lou Bond – Lou Bond

• 7th Mar 2010

Lou Bond’s “Lou Bond” is a tough cookie to chew on. Lyrically exceptional, with probing, hard hitting commentary which despite being written in the 1970s, are still as current and appropriate as they have ever been.

Musically, though, the same really can’t be said for the album dubbed the ‘forgotten masterpiece’.

Bond is clever with his rich choice of instrumentation; it is thickly layered but carefully arranged and avoids a ‘heavy’ sound as a result. There’s no denying his clear talent and ability but the album just doesn’t come together.

The mixture of styles such as rhythm n’ blues with an accompaniment which wouldn’t be altogether out of place in a 1940s musical is somewhat baffling, and leaves numbers such as the scathing “That’s the Way I’ve Heard it Should Be” feeling a bit confused, the impact of the stirring lyrics all but lost under a sea of cheesy drumbeats and (intentionally ironic but nonetheless still crass) key changes.

The best songs of this six track album are probably the first two, “Lucky Me” and “Why Must Our Eyes Always be Turned Backwards?” It’s impossible to say, though, whether this is because they are any better than those which follow, or whether it’s simply because they happen to be towards the beginning of the album, and so the sound is still new and somewhat fresh. “Why Must Our Eyes…” certainly scores top marks on the lyric front. Comprised mainly of unrelated statements such as “unemployment rates are high worldwide” and “people are hungry”, it manages to combine a political motive with a bluesy, hint of gospel accompaniment which sees it taking the biscuit for musical/vocal collaboration, resulting in an ironically joyous sounding dig at the powers that be.

The album slopes off gently after that, both in terms of variation and sound, as “Let Me Into Your Life” and “I’m Still In love With You/Motherless Child” draw the album to an inappropriately morose, downbeat and ultimately forgettable (were it not for the honestly bemusing 30 second note Bond holds at the end of “Motherless Child”, notable for its impressive use of lung capacity but not much else) ending.

It’s an album to remember for its poetry, but as for being a ‘forgotten masterpiece’ it is severely lacking in musical cohesion and common sense to truly deserve this tagline.