Elly Roberts reviews
Sean Lennon: Friendly Fire
Distributed by
Capitol
- Released: October 2006
- Rating: 6/10
His father John Lennon was one of the 20th century’s greatest musical talents.
Son Sean isn’t a chip off the old block, and is more than prepared to say so.
Sean’s follow-up to 1998 debut Into The Sun, which made little impact,
is barely groundbreaking. It sees a struggling artist, well not struggling in
the literal sense of course, trying to create his own musical identity.
In the past he’s dabbled in various styles of music. Clearly frustrated by a
lack of commercial progress, he said, "There was long period after the
first album where I felt disillusioned with the machinery of the industry.
Friendly Fire is an experiment to see what it might be like to
do music publicly again."
Making a reasonable effort to address the problem and be credible, which
can’t be easy with a surname like his, the lightweight songs are quite
radio-friendly. He’s also played several instruments and produced it, to his
credit. Dead Meat’s child-like piano sounds promising, eventually
resulting in a patchy album.
The closest we get to a daddy ‘Lennon’ tune is the delightfully wistful
Spectacle. Beautiful saccharine ballad Tomorrow embracing a
pseudo cabaret '60s feel, is one of the few real highlights. Having rubbed
shoulders with Vincent Gallo, Ryan Adams et al, over the past 8 years, he
may well have also taken a leaf out of Aussie Ben Lee’s songbook on the
hand-clapping happy Headlight, making it the collection’s best.
The wonderful string arrangement by Eric Gorfain on Marc Bolan’s Would I Be
The One, turns the tune in to a majestic psychedelic trip, paying due
deference to Bolan’s gem. Concluding with the magnificent opus Falling
Out Of Love, Sean seems to have nailed his niche a la Rufus Wainwright,
but up until then, it has no genuine direction or cohesion. Admittedly, it
sounds better with each listen.
A bonus DVD contains filmed footage to go with each song, is streamed at
the second weblink below and can be purchased with the CD at the Amazon link
above.
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.