New album from my favourite recording artist makes Uncut's best of 2004
11-09-04, 10:08 AM
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New album from my favourite recording artist makes Uncut's best of 2004
Lewis Taylor 's been a busy boy. In the 4 years since he was dropped from Island records, he's started up his own label, and put out 5 albums, including two Limited Edition CDs theat he sold at his live gigs. He covered New York New York and Ghosts for the soundtracks of Strictly Sinatra and The Calcium Kid, respectively. He's also been working on a song by song remake of Trout Mask Replica, for his own pleasure.
He just released his third CD for the year, which may just be the best thing he's recorded since his eponymous debut. This album does for rock what his debut did for soul, and it's followup, "Lewis II" did for funk, that is to say: it synthesizes all of his musical influences, from Marvin Gaye, Brian Wilson and Todd Rundgren to Syd Barrett, Led Zeppelin and Yes, but filters it through his unique vision. LT makes music influenced by a lot of people, but nobody makes music like LT. Some of his diehard fans felt that this vision became diluted with the first two releases on Slow Reality, but by the time he released Limited Edition 2004, it was obvious that his talent hadn't gone anywhere. Programmed drums were out, and his twisting, labyrinthine songwriting was back. Hamish from Average White Band commented that he liked the way Lewis "let the beast run wild". And it does, aided by LT's guitar pyrotechnics (BTW he writes, produces, sings and plays all instruments on his albums, not to mention layers wall of sound background vocals that would bring a tear to Brain Wilson's eyes) and lush production.
10 months in, and this is my favourite album of the year, handily beating even SMiLE 2004. (sorry Brian!) Any music lover who considers themselves open-minded should do themself a favour and check this album out.
Available from www.slowreality.com or at Fopp in the UK.
He just released his third CD for the year, which may just be the best thing he's recorded since his eponymous debut. This album does for rock what his debut did for soul, and it's followup, "Lewis II" did for funk, that is to say: it synthesizes all of his musical influences, from Marvin Gaye, Brian Wilson and Todd Rundgren to Syd Barrett, Led Zeppelin and Yes, but filters it through his unique vision. LT makes music influenced by a lot of people, but nobody makes music like LT. Some of his diehard fans felt that this vision became diluted with the first two releases on Slow Reality, but by the time he released Limited Edition 2004, it was obvious that his talent hadn't gone anywhere. Programmed drums were out, and his twisting, labyrinthine songwriting was back. Hamish from Average White Band commented that he liked the way Lewis "let the beast run wild". And it does, aided by LT's guitar pyrotechnics (BTW he writes, produces, sings and plays all instruments on his albums, not to mention layers wall of sound background vocals that would bring a tear to Brain Wilson's eyes) and lush production.
10 months in, and this is my favourite album of the year, handily beating even SMiLE 2004. (sorry Brian!) Any music lover who considers themselves open-minded should do themself a favour and check this album out.
UNCUT REVIEW - DECEMBER 2004 ISSUE
THE MISSING LINK
The British Todd Rundgren explores his soft-rock roots.
Blue-eyed soul, currently enjoying a critical reappraisal, can be a source of immense pleasure, guilty or otherwise. It can also be an excruciating contrivance. In the late 90's, all-round musical wizz-kid Lewis Taylor found himself pitched as the UKs new white boy soul sensation, but while the Marvin-influenced records were startlingly strong, his heart wasn't quite in it. Not content with being able to sing like an angel, Taylor could also toss out Princely guitar licks with his hands tied behind his back, and this was something he wanted to do. His plans for radical change of direction, however, were too confusing for the record company, and thus shelved. Now an independent operator, Lewis can release whatever he likes on his own cunningly title label (it's an anagram of this name, see), and the album he had in mind back then finally emerges, re-recorded. By the demand of everyone who's since heard the ('badly recorded', he says) demos. Whereas his soul LPs have tended to be improvised over grooves and atmospheres, this is more crafted, the songs written on guitar or piano, the vocals layered with detail and delicacy. The influences are clear: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Beach Boys, John Sebastian. It's much closer to that West Coast hippy feel than are other touted 'now' bands like The Thrills, refusing to airbrush the follow-ones of The Eagles and America out of history. And it's hard to believe one man is making most of these sounds. The high, multiple harmonies are exhilarating, the guitar solos eloquent. Taylor himself hears it as a British sound, but there's as much Joe Walsh here as Clapton or - dare we say - Frampton. And as his dazzling vocabulary swoops from AOR pomp to unplugged, organic breakdowns, the '60s sunshine sometimes backs off to allow in more aggressive phrases. 'Listen Here' has a hint of Princes' 'When Doves Cry'; 'Hide Your Heart Away' could be Fifth Dimension or The Association. He can't mute the soul, hard as he might try: The Isleys breeze in often, thank goodness. Taylor's versatility doesn't make him a swift pitch, but with each release he dynamites more barriers. You could lose yourself in this.
Q&A
'Rocking muso' Lewis Taylor on limitation and liberation
UNCUT: Explain the albums complex history
TAYLOR: I originally demoed it as the follow-up to my Island debut in '96. To reflect what I was about more. I felt limited by the R&B/soul box I was in, and didn't belong there. Gigging with Incognito and suchlike, I felt like a fraud. I was discouraged from putting this out, but recently we decided to re-record it.
You wanted to rock?
I love playing guitar, and as a kid I'd listened to Cream, Deep Purple, all sorts. But vocally you're either Noddy Holder or Neil Young, and I'm definitely more the latter. If you're a muso like me - Todd Rundgren's another example - you can play an genre, so it's difficult at first to find your voice. You don't have the limitations which free you that others have.
So this is the real you?
It's song-based, not groove-based, and the album that's the most like me to date. It's in touch with what moved me at a young age.
THE MISSING LINK
The British Todd Rundgren explores his soft-rock roots.
Blue-eyed soul, currently enjoying a critical reappraisal, can be a source of immense pleasure, guilty or otherwise. It can also be an excruciating contrivance. In the late 90's, all-round musical wizz-kid Lewis Taylor found himself pitched as the UKs new white boy soul sensation, but while the Marvin-influenced records were startlingly strong, his heart wasn't quite in it. Not content with being able to sing like an angel, Taylor could also toss out Princely guitar licks with his hands tied behind his back, and this was something he wanted to do. His plans for radical change of direction, however, were too confusing for the record company, and thus shelved. Now an independent operator, Lewis can release whatever he likes on his own cunningly title label (it's an anagram of this name, see), and the album he had in mind back then finally emerges, re-recorded. By the demand of everyone who's since heard the ('badly recorded', he says) demos. Whereas his soul LPs have tended to be improvised over grooves and atmospheres, this is more crafted, the songs written on guitar or piano, the vocals layered with detail and delicacy. The influences are clear: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Beach Boys, John Sebastian. It's much closer to that West Coast hippy feel than are other touted 'now' bands like The Thrills, refusing to airbrush the follow-ones of The Eagles and America out of history. And it's hard to believe one man is making most of these sounds. The high, multiple harmonies are exhilarating, the guitar solos eloquent. Taylor himself hears it as a British sound, but there's as much Joe Walsh here as Clapton or - dare we say - Frampton. And as his dazzling vocabulary swoops from AOR pomp to unplugged, organic breakdowns, the '60s sunshine sometimes backs off to allow in more aggressive phrases. 'Listen Here' has a hint of Princes' 'When Doves Cry'; 'Hide Your Heart Away' could be Fifth Dimension or The Association. He can't mute the soul, hard as he might try: The Isleys breeze in often, thank goodness. Taylor's versatility doesn't make him a swift pitch, but with each release he dynamites more barriers. You could lose yourself in this.
Q&A
'Rocking muso' Lewis Taylor on limitation and liberation
UNCUT: Explain the albums complex history
TAYLOR: I originally demoed it as the follow-up to my Island debut in '96. To reflect what I was about more. I felt limited by the R&B/soul box I was in, and didn't belong there. Gigging with Incognito and suchlike, I felt like a fraud. I was discouraged from putting this out, but recently we decided to re-record it.
You wanted to rock?
I love playing guitar, and as a kid I'd listened to Cream, Deep Purple, all sorts. But vocally you're either Noddy Holder or Neil Young, and I'm definitely more the latter. If you're a muso like me - Todd Rundgren's another example - you can play an genre, so it's difficult at first to find your voice. You don't have the limitations which free you that others have.
So this is the real you?
It's song-based, not groove-based, and the album that's the most like me to date. It's in touch with what moved me at a young age.
