Slow Dazzle

Even when he's playing it "straight", Cale can't help but be an oddball. That said, this proves he can churn out some brilliance that stuns! Check it out for his cover of Heartbreak Hotel; a completely new take on the classic.

I love anything John Cale does, so I tend to be a biased reviewer. There is not a bad song on this CD. His take on Heartbreak Hotel is the most unique version ever recorded. I love how evil he makes this song sound.

It's John Cale. What else but phenomenal.

Throughout a career of constant experimenting and searching, only once - with the so-called "Island Trilogy" - did John Cale find a comfortable enough niche to settle down and create music that's truly and utterly timeless; on those three albums Cale practices a sleek, sarcastic and very dark blend of rock, pop and avant-garde jazz, and they're as challenging and intricate as they are tight and precise. Of the three, Slow Dazzle, the second effort, is probably the most varied and inconsistent; but it's still solid enough to be an entirely satisfying listen, and thanks to its high versatility it may be the best of the bunch; it's also the cleanest and best produced of them, and benefits from first class arrangements that incorporate brass and strings smartly and never excessively, serving as a backdrop to Cale's hard, dark bass, high distortion and electric piano. Cale's highly intelligent sarcasm is clear from the very first track - `Mr. Wilson' - which is a brilliant, dark and gritty tribute to Brian Wilson, one of Cale's heroes and influences. It's by far not the only gem on the album; `Darling I Need You' - which is, as Cale himself put it, a song about `religious awakening in the southern part of the United States', remains one of his strongest tracks, while `I'm Not The Loving Kind' is one of his most beautiful ballads, and not without its share of sarcasm and bitterness. `Ski Patrol', `Rollaroll' and `Taking It All Away' are all vintage Cale, that could have fitted perfectly on Helen Of Troy or Fear. `Dirty Ass Rock N' Roll' is an all-out rock number with terrific lyrics and great electric piano work; maybe I'm prejudiced because this song was played (brilliantly!) as an encore when I saw Cale live in Tel Aviv earlier this year, but it's one of my own favorites. But to me the album becomes fascinating in three tracks that are all around grittier and more disturbing. `Guts' is one of the most powerful pieces Cale had written, music, lyrics and all; the lyrics are very personal, dark and moving, and with a twisted sense of humor; and it's driven by a fast electric piano, and a powerful bass line. Then there's his interpretation of Elvis Presley's timeless `Heartbreak Hotel'. Like `Mr. Wilson', `Heartbreak Hotel' puts a dark twist on Cale's influences; but in his hands, the rockabilly classic is turned into a dark, heavy rock number, and is barely recognizable. In fact, with this new arrangement and gut-wrenching vocal performance, Cale merely brings to the surface the surprising bleakness and darkness of the song's lyrics. Finally, `The Jeweller' is a spoken-word piece, a dark poem by Cale placed against a backdrop of ambient electric piano. The piece is disturbing and troubling, and the track is one of the most haunting on the album, making it a grand finale and an uneasy one. It perfectly compliments this grand and uneasy album, one of Cale's best and an essential to any fan.

Despite being a founding member of the Velvet Underground, and producing a few landmarks, among them the first Stooges album, John Cale remains underrated or simply taken for granted. If Paris 1919 and Fear top the list, Slow Dazzle and Helen of Troy make it a quartet for his best work of the 1970's. Mr. Wilson is a witty homage to the Beach Boys' musical maestro. Taking It All Away, Darling I Need You and Loving Kind are three of his best love songs about the complete lack of it. Dirty Ass Rock & Roll and Rollaroll and Guts are three of his most raging and scathing. None of which accounts for his pissed off Goth before Goth take on the Elvis classic, Heartbreak Hotel. The only filler here is the slight Ski Patrol. And while the The Gift raised hairs on VU's White Light/ White Heat, The Jeweler is an even more disturbing recitation. How many albums do you know close with an atmospheric short story about about one eye literally turning into a vagina? If musically things sound bit early Roxy Music, that makes sense considering Brian Eno & Phil Manzanera make up the backing band. Formidable guitarist, Chris Spedding doesn't hurt either. Cale will always remain a cult artist, and that's really not a bad thing. And after a number of listens, one get's the sense that Slow Dazzle is more a dark comment on Glam Rock than any attempt to join the party. Of course one can always go to his Island Years compilation for an overview, but if one wants the whole picture, Slow Dazzle remains essential Cale.

This is a superb record, but its of marginal value with "The Island Years", which has Cale's entire output from his time on Island and (at least as I write this) is comparably priced to this release. All three Island albums have something to offer, and there's some extra material on the set. While "Fear" is typically considered the peak of Cale's Island output, I actually much prefer "Slow Dazzle"-- it doesn't quite have the heights of "Fear", but it doesn't have as much of the fluff that album has either. Before going any further, let's talk about "Heartbreak Hotel"-- its certainly the most stunning and memorable moment on the album. No doubt likely to horrify any Elvis fan, this is something-- often considered the pinnacle of inspiration for the goth movement, "Heartbreak Hotel" features heavy, distorted guitars, a wailing synth line, and hissed and screamed vocals from Cale. Its really stunning on first listen, brilliant on subsequent. This alone makes the album worth having. But that's not all the great work on the album, Cale maintains the sort of haunted mood on the record, regardless of form-- his Brian Wilson tribute ("Mr. Wilson"), a brilliant tribute soaked in early '70s Beach Boys-style rhythms and surf harmonies at the tag and with more than a couple overt Beach Boys lyrical references is brilliant with its sense of a haunted melancholy. "Taking It All Away" and "Darling I Need You", similar in feel (midtempo rock pieces) both express different takes on this sort of thing, the latter in particular is really quite brilliant. And then there's the two great rock songs, "Dirty Ass Rock 'n' Roll" and "Guts"-- both keeping up the album's attitude, both are great, great, songs, compulsive, powerful, Cale's half shouted vocal is brilliant. Ditto for "Rollaroll", although the composition is a bit weaker and it doesn't stand up well next to these two. Cale does mix it up a bit, the pop "Ski Patrol" fails pretty bad in my book, and the bizarre spoken word piece, "The Jeweller" is beyond explanation (ten years I've been listening to this album, I still can't make up my mind about it), but the pretty ballad, "I'm Not the Loving Kind" (and still with that haunted feel), featuring a melancholy, stunningly resonant, wordless chorus vocal from Cale, is essential. Bottom line, "Slow Dazzle" is in my assessment one of the true gems in the Cale catalog, highly recommended, but "The Island Years" is a much better value.

Cale's 1975 album "Slow Dazzle" more or less follows the same tracks that were laid out with his first Island album "Fear". It's a fine combination of fine pop-ballads and great rocking tunes still with touches of Cale's avantgardish approach. The opener, "Mr Wilson", is Cale's tribute to Brian Wilson whose influence on Cale is obvious on several tracks on more of his albums. "Dirty Ass Rock'n Roll" and "Darling I Need You" are two pianobased rockers, the first with Dylan-like vocals the other slightly Fats Domino inspired. The standout rocker, though, is the terrific "Guts" with a guitar-riff worthy of a Keith Richards at his best. The only non-Cale original is a weird version of "Hearbreak Hotel" - if you do not listen the lyrics you'll never notice it was the old Elvis song. The melodic side of Cale is showcased with "Taking it All Away", "Im Not the Loving Kind" and "Ski Patrol", the latter the most commercial song on the album. "The Jeweller" is a story recited by Cale, not unlike "The Gift" from his Velvet Underground days. While not quite as consistent in its songwriting as "Fear", this is easily on of Cale's best albums.

Even die hard John Cale fans have to admit he's a frustrating artist who in admirably resisting pigeon holes has at times made himself decidedly difficult to warm to. On Slow Dazzle however he clearly settled on a genre he liked for a moment and absolutely nailed it. Yes, its possible to argue that by focussing his vision so tightly he deprives the 'true' fan of the eclectic weirdness that characterises so much of his work but on the other hand it does mean he delivers a superbly tight and coherent slab of dark rock and roll. And dark it truely is. Once you've heard Cale's intensly menacing version of Heartbreak Hotel its hard to ever take the original seriously again. Sometimes criticised as too commercial because of its clean and punchy production, Slow Dazzle shines with repeated listenings. The tortured love songs, the twisted narrative, the glorious pop sensability, they're all there. Not so much a slow dazzle as an immediate, enduring, and dazzling tour de force.

"Slow Dazzle" est le deuxième des trois albums géniaux que Cale a enregistré pour Island au milieux des années 70. De toute sa carrière c'est celui qui possède le charme le plus pernicieux. A la première écoute il donne la fausse impression d'être assez conventionnel. Pourtant manifestement quelque chose d'étrange se produit et l'auditeur n'a dès lors plus de cesse d'y revenir. Le malaise que distille "Slow Dazzle" s'avère hautement addictif. Le songwritiing est excellent. L'aspect un peu trop normal à première vue de certains morceaux est une ruse particulièrement perverse. "Slow Dazzle" est un disque d'une tristesse abyssale et le récit autobiographique réarrangé de problèmes émotionnels particulièrement difficiles à digérer. "Guts" s'ouvre par ""The bugger in the short sleeves f... my wife" référence à un épisode réel impliquant Kevin Ayers et l'épouse de Cale avant le concert "June 1, 1974" Cet épisode éclaire finalement tout l'album qui est un grand disque de coeur brisé. Il faut tout l'art de Cale pour le mettre en forme et le cacher. Bien sûr ce sentiment explose parfois comme sur la reprise psychotique de "Heartbreak Hotel" ou de manière froide et flippante sur le drone "The Jewel" qui clôt l'album. Mais finalement c'est dans la pop song qui semble anodine "Taking It All Away", "Darling I Need You" ou dans la retenue de "I'm Not The Loving Kind" que ce sentiment est le plus poignant en raison des travestissements employés par Cale. Superbement accompagné par les fines lames Manzarena et Chris Spedding et bénéficiant de l'apport amical d'Eno 'Slow Dazzle" est une grande leçon de style et un des plus beaux albums de son auteur.

昔、レコードで持っていたものだから気に入って当然(^^)やっぱりケールは良いな～

Ottimo album, ottima riproduzione grafica in cd dell’LP originale, ottima rimasterizzazione

For my money this is one of the top five albums of the seventies, and certainly my favourite Cale album. What really distinguishes it is not the songwriting as such (although that is frequently excellent) but the sheer blood'n'guts emotion in Cale's voice. Darling I Need You is almost unbearably painful to hear, while the intensity of the vocal performance on the astonishing cover of Heartbreak Hotel has to be heard to be believed. The other side of the coin is the chillingly dispassionate spoken word vocal on closing track The Jeweller, which describes a day in the life of an average ordinary-Joe whose eye is mysteriously transforming into a vulva. This is rock music, Jim - but not as we know it. My two favourite tracks are the opening pair - Cale's tribute to his musical hero Brian Wilson, 'Mr Wilson', unfolds in beautiful, elegaic fair-ground textures tinged with unmistakeable melancholy, while Taking It All Away is simply a mesmirisingly beautiful and heart-broken pop song which for some reason I always imagine being used as the soundtrack to a documentary about bailiffs. An essential cornerstone of the seventies rock cannon - buy it

Ya había hecho Paris 1919, Vintage Violence, había producido a NICO, Los Stooges...pero éste vinilo!!! Escuchadlo y me decís, porque se pega a los poros