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 SPOTTISWOODE
AND HIS ENEMIES – Building a Road (Site)
First things first, because this site is generally dedicated to punk music
in it’s various forms, let me establish the fact that this is in no way
a punk record. If it has to
get placed in one of those genre buckets that we critics seem to depend
on, I’ll choose “soul”, but that’s not exactly right.
“Gospel” comes to mind, too, but that’s partly because of the
photos on the cover and inside the lyric booklet, which depict what
appears to be a very exciting, spirit-filled morning at a
Black
Baptist
Church
somewhere in the
Deep South
. But here’s the twist:
Jonathan Spottiswoode is an educated, upper-class Englishman, with
a voice that falls somewhere in the Tom Waits/Leonard Cohen end of the
spectrum; and whose lyrics are almost worthy of comparison to those two
legendary songwriters, as well. This
is a mature album, full of the whole range of emotions that real human
life is made up of, from the unbounded joy and optimism of “The Youngest
Child” to the sorrowful, remorseful, apologetic “I Didn’t Hurt You
Intentionally”. From the
promise of better times to come in “You Will Rise Again” to the
depressing sense that life may not even be worth getting out of bed for in
“Lazarus”. But the
underlying message that runs throughout is best expressed in the title
song, which is a celebration of the importance of impossible ambitions and
unachievable goals, i.e.: building a road from the moon to the sun.
This is grown up music, but should not be confused with Adult
Contemporary. It’s music
with soul and grit. The
performances are thrilling, if imperfect.
In the lead track “Drunk”, the horn section plays all out of
tune and out of time, like they might if they were, indeed, drunk; while,
on other tracks, they’re as tight and funky as the guys from Muscle
Shoals. This is one of the
best cds I have heard in a long time, of any genre.
I imagine it will be in heavy rotation in my cd player for a long
time to come. -Brian Mosher
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