RFI: John Cale - Hobo Sapiens

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Who's heard it? Please review...

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 3 October 2003 11:45 (twenty years ago) link

it's coming out next week over here. eagerly looking forward to it after buying the "5 tracks" ep last week. great stuff. his voice is as cool/detached as i like it to be and musically there is lots of interesting things happening in a subdued kinda way. "hobosapiens" is reviewed in the last mojo.

― willem (willem), Friday, 3 October 2003 12:04 (twenty years ago) link

I just ordered it & 5 Tracks .. Just curious whether it was as good as the few short reviews I've read. (The reviews have tended to be self-indulgent "Look how poetic I am about writing about this wonderful cult artist. Oh yeah, Paris 1919 too - forgot to namedrop that.") I'mz looking for something that tells it like it is..

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 3 October 2003 12:10 (twenty years ago) link

I'm no Cale expert - I have Paris 1919 which I like - but to be honest I found Hobosapiens beyond bad. Totally over the top, pompous, pretentious, silly lyrics, appalling backing and lead vocals. Let's put it this way, if you thought Lou Reed's The Raven was genius, you might feel the same way about this.

― P.B., Friday, 3 October 2003 12:28 (twenty years ago) link

I though Walking on Locusts was a bit pretentious with appalling backing vocals - and I LOVED that record. So .. we'll have to see...

(I still haven't heard The Raven. No interest, really.)

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 3 October 2003 12:36 (twenty years ago) link

operates somewhere to the left of 'catchy', irritatingly, because if the productions weren't so full all the time and you could hear the hooks there might actually be good songs. one track references 'stand on zanzibar' but even that isn't enough to make me love it.

― thom west (thom w), Friday, 3 October 2003 19:24 (twenty years ago) link

one month passes...

Can we revive this now?
Only listened to it once so far, dug it until track 5 or 6, after which a creeping 'why-the-fuck-am-I-listening-to-this' feeling progressively got hold of me.
Ok, so I'm not really saying much here, but with Cale I often have to mentally block my suspicions of self-indulgence, failing that my whole view of his records becomes tainted by it.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Friday, 7 November 2003 08:54 (twenty years ago) link

i kinda agree with thom west there, about the un-catchyness and the full production. those were the first things that struck me. too much stuff going on at once. after the first ten listens i still couldn't remember a single song.

the trick for me was to meet it halfway, to not take it for granted. maybe it's niche, i dunno. but if you're into Cale, then i don't see why this album shouldn't grow on you.

― tod (tod), Friday, 7 November 2003 10:24 (twenty years ago) link

in other words: i fuckin' love it.

― tod (tod), Friday, 7 November 2003 10:25 (twenty years ago) link

I love this record too, but I know that's partly because I really wanted to love it. It certainly has its weak moments, even seriously embarrassing ones too (for me, these are mostly the songs where Cale (or his producers) are trying to be funky, Bicycle being the worst example. It strives to be playful, but really, it's about as horrific as watching your Dad getting it on on the dancefloor. Who in their right minds looks to John Cale for dance tracks anyway?). But gripes aside, to my mind, tracks like Magritte (eeek, the pretentious ones!) are terrific. I like the feelings of horror and panic bubbling under the surface of those songs. His voice is great too.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 7 November 2003 10:46 (twenty years ago) link

haha. i used to skip "Bicycle" but i can take it now. it just adds some, uh, weirdness to the overall feel of the album. but i admit, that is not a sexy song!

and for what it's worth, the songs on the "5 Tracks" ep do have stronger hooks. but it's still not as good as the album.

― tod (tod), Friday, 7 November 2003 11:05 (twenty years ago) link

Hmmm, Bicycle - I'm going to see Cale in December and I'm just plain dreading watching the gyrations of the audience during that song. I might have to take along a cushion to hide behind.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 7 November 2003 11:18 (twenty years ago) link

Haha - yeah I might go and seem him at the end of this month, when he plays in Prague. I saw him last year, solo on the piano, and it was kind of meh

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Friday, 7 November 2003 11:21 (twenty years ago) link

don't think he's been doing that one live, though.

do-doo-rdo-doo, do-doo-rdo-doo-ooo

― tod (tod), Friday, 7 November 2003 11:36 (twenty years ago) link

About a week ago, he opened a gig in Rotterdam (which I was not able to attend, ^%(##^) with Venus in Furs... I've heard it was a great show.

― willem (willem), Friday, 7 November 2003 12:12 (twenty years ago) link

five years pass...

i really like this album a lot.

magritte is just an epic song.

― ie: BANGING (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 16 January 2009 17:49 (fifteen years ago) link

total sleeper, this lp. i love Caravan.

great review here:
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/john-cale/hobo-sapiens.htm

and yes, the 5 Tracks ep is great too. never did warm up to Black Acetate...

― nerve_pylon, Friday, 16 January 2009 19:40 (fifteen years ago) link

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