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Didier Dumonteil <dbdumonteil@wanadoo.fr> (16.02.2001)

Sure I do.John Cale is one of the most underrated creators of the seventies.The title track is a real tour de force,turning fear into some kind of shelter,c'est un comble!'Buffalo ballet' is a wonderful ballad ,à la paris 1919 (his masterpiece,why didn't you mention it?It's procolesque and beatlesque,do me a favor,please listen to this gem you who appreciate melodic greatness),depicting a crepuscular world.'Gun' is some kind of detective story with blood galore.Emily' melody is rather dull;i wonder who she is? A novel character?Emily in David Copperfield?could be(down by the sea...)A writer?(Bronté)? or maybe an unknown woman?'Barracuda' tackles reggae with gusto.

Didier Dumonteil <dbdumonteil@wanadoo.fr> (16.02.2001)

A totally weird collection:There are ballads (de rigueur in a Cale album,even the noisy sabotage has two slow numbers):'china sea' (a pean to Wilson,as he did in "slow dazzle"?),'Cable Hogue' (a tribute to Sam Peckinpah?who knows?)and the anodyne "coral moon". Some kind of gothic opera with 'my maria',with depressing chorus.Don't listen to that when you're brooding! Some progressive with engine which begins as a ballad and ends up as some kind of nihilistic punk;and that works! Helen of troy is a sort of remake of velvet tracks (first album)with this shiny shiny joan of ark. I keep a close watch simply a great classic.I think you allude to George Harrison's I still love you which Ringo recorded on his pitiful rotogravure album.I wish George had recorded that for all things must pass!But as for Ringo's gloomy rendering,please don't compare it to Cale's majestic gem. And there is leaving up to you with its notorious "we all be safe like sharon tate".It's mad,off the wall and it's really groovy! You should review paris 1919 slow dazzle sabotage and songs for a new society.After that,Cale's carrer was very spotty.