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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unholy pleasure, 22 Jan 2006
"I never really wanted this job. But look at it from my point of view." So says Stephen Londoner Coates, known to the world as the Real Tuesday Weld. Melding electronica with 20's and 30's jazz, he concocts the strangely alluring "I Lucifer." His murmuring vocals and hallucinatory musical style make this a bizarre delight.Coates starts off in "It's A Dirty Old Job But Somebody's Got To Do It," a reflective, melancholy monologue. Then the melancholy is shed with the infectious jazzy "Bathtime In Clerkenwell" and the angular "(Still) Terminally Ambivalent Over You." It slows down with the soaring "Someday (Never)," and the languid "Easter Parade," followed by the tense "The Life & Times Of The Clerkenwell Kid." It rounds off with the quietly hopeless "Someday (Soon)," and the ethereal, wavering "Pearly Gates." "I Lucifer" is the imagined soundtrack to Glen Duncan's novel of the same title, about the devil having a second chance on earth, if he can last out a certain time period with no sinning. Story records don't come along too often, but "I Lucifer" works quite well, partly because it's just so fun. The music is a a seemingly unholy mix of lounge jazz and electronica. But Coates melds them together without a hitch. The joyous scatting, gentle percussion, horns, cymbals, and orchestral choirs are all layered with old fuzz and distortion, which adds to the early 20th century feel of the music. At the same time, he uses electronic backdrops to give it a slightly hallucinatory feel. Coates' vocals aren't exceptional, as a singer. When he actually sings, as he does in "Someday (Never)," his voice sounds scratchy. But when he murmurs, he sounds seductive and vaguely amused. It fits in with the atmosphere of smoky cabarets and corporeal devils, especially in the opener, where he calmly tells us, "It doesn't matter. You fall... you don't rise again," backed by violins. He may not be able to really sing, but the Real Tuesday Weld has made a unique experience in his second album. Sepia-tinted jazz is mixed with electronica in "I Lucifer," one of the most original guilty pleasures of 2004.
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~ The Real Tuesday Weld
~ The Real Tuesday Weld
by Glen Duncan
~ The Real Tuesday Weld
~ Fleet Foxes
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