Audio CD review:
John Cale - Helen of Troy

John Cale - Helen of Troy

Band: John Cale Title: Helen of Troy Rating: Release Date: 15 July, 2002 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: My Maria 2: Helen of Troy 3: China Sea 4: Engine 5: Save Us 6: Cable Hogue 7: (I Keep A) Close Watch 8: Pablo Picasso 9: Leaving It up to You 10: Baby, What You Want Me to Do 11: Sudden Death

Customer Reviews A Tight Album! Cale's vocals sound very strong throughout the album and his song-writing generally on par with "Fear" and "Slow Dazzle". "Helen of Troy" is probably the tightest sounding, of Cale's three Island albums, which is really not very surprising, since it was recorded with his touring band consisting of Chris Spedding on guitar, Timmy Donald on drums and Pat Donaldson on bass. Maybe the album is not quite as varied as its predecessors and the general sound may appear slightly harder and a couple of tracks like "Engine" and "Pablo Picasso" could be hard to the delicate ear to listen to. On the other hand there are also softer melodic moment with the beautful "China Sea" ( the most Brian Wilson inspired track on the album ) and the ballad "I Keep a Close Watch", which Cale is said to have hoped that FRank Sinatra would record. A favourite of mine is the sparsely instrumentated "Cable Hogue", with heartful vocals and a Pink Floyd sounding acoustic guitar. "Coral Moon", which replaced the controversal "Leaving it Up to You" is also a nice track showing the softer side of Cale. Songs like "Helen of Troy" and "Sudden Death" have a great dramatic feel to them, but Cale's version of "Baby, What You Want Me to Do", though tightly played, somehow doesn't really work in this context, and its a track that may well be the first you want to skip over. Though not among the very best Cale releases, still a very good album. Third of the Island Trilogy My Maria is a slow elegy with lovely operatic harmony vocals, whilst the atmospheric title track has a complex arrangement with spoken vocal in parts. Helen Of Troy is a stylistically diverse album containing gentle ballads, angry rock and plenty of experimentation. China Sea is an almost singalong pop number with a catchy tune, whilst the rock number Engine has striking lyrical imagery and a dissonant tone. There is tempo variation in the jerky Save Us whilst Cable Hogue is a mournful ballad. Reminiscent of Cale's work on the album Paris 1919, I Keep A Close Watch is a moving ballad, one of the highlights on the album. His version of The Modern Lovers song Pablo Picasso gets a fierce treatment, similar to a track like Guts on Slow Dazzle. Leaving It Up To You is in the same mould, a rock ballad with angry vocal outbursts that end in sonic dissonance. Baby What You Want Me To Do is standard rock and the album concludes with Sudden Death, an eerie slow song. Chris Spedding, Brian Eno and Phil Collins contribute their talents to the album, making it musically superb. Helen Of Troy is less cohesive and not quite on the level of Fear or Slow Dazzle, but it contains moments of brilliance that make it indispensable for the John Cale fan. . Uneven, experimental effort. All three Island albums have something to offer, and there's some extra material on the set. Helen of Troy is the weakest of the three Island Cale albums, 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. Cale assembled an album largely experimental in mood and style-- while normally this would work well for me, I found this one failed more often than it succeeded. There are some stunningly brilliant moments-- guitar-driven "My Maria", with its great arrangement and brilliant vocal harmonies, the absolutely lovely, introspective, and lush ballad, "I Keep a Close Watch", Cale's cover of the rocking Modern Lovers song "Pablo Picasso" loses some of the originals off-kilter delivery, but adds some great bite to the piece, the tortured lead vocal on "Cable Hogue", and the mighty "Leaving It Up To You" (on most versions). The latter is a dark, haunting, explosive, tormented song, paranoid and deranged, Cale hisses, spits, wails, and screams his vocal in a way quite unmatched anywhere else on record by anyone. It alone is worth the price of admission, but the song was deemed so disturbing it was often pulled from the album by the label. Beyond that though, the album seems to fail more often than not-- some of the songs are reasonable enough-- "Helen of Troy" is actually a great song marred by a horrible voiceover, "Save Us" is decent enough, but the rest of the record is largely forgettable. Of course, "Leaving It Up To You" is worth the price of admission alone, but "The Island Years" is a much better value. . You can see a complete list of all John Cale discography, or go back to the John Cale tabs