ALAN PRICE: ENGLAND MY ENGLAND (1978)
1) England My England; 2) This
Ain't Your Lucky Day; 3) Mama Don't Go Home; 4) Groovy Times; 5) Baby Of Mine;
6) I Love You Too; 7) Those Tender Lips; 8) Citizens Of The World Unite; 9)
Help From You; 10) Pity The Poor Boy.
Odd how, when you listen to these records by
«second rate» artists peaking in the early-to-mid Seventies, you get this sharp
feeling of «gradually winding down» — each next album being ever so slightly
inferior compared to its predecessor, but slightly, slightly, so that the
contrast is felt particularly between extremes rather than neighbors. Compared
to Alan Price, England My England is merely suffering from a tiny extra touch of
disco and a tiny extra touch of Billy Joel-itis (Joel-light-is, I mean), but then if you play it next to Lucky Man!, well...
Again, hardly a single song here sounds really
embarrassing, but this is only because the author relies too much on the tried
and true: vaudeville, R&B clichés, soft funky grooves, conventional ballad
structures — and his usual humble charisma, which is by far the only thing that
has not deteriorated, because, well, that's just a fact of nature. Again, the
songs are divided between love ballads, love-sex grooves, and a few
sociopolitical declarations thrown in for old times' sake — such as the title
track, which starts out sounding more like a Russian folk song than a patriotic
English anthem, somehow redeems itself in the chorus ("we are your
children, oh England, don't cry!"), and still leaves behind a confused impression,
particularly when Alan begins to scat-sing to these Russian cossack dance
moves. There's also ʽCitizens Of The World Uniteʼ, which only lacks a proper
Barry Gibb falsetto to have been a big hit at Studio 54, which — no doubt about
it — was the place for citizens of
the world to unite at the time.
I struggle to single out any highlights, but
arguably ʽGroovy Timesʼ is Price's finest moment here, starting out as one of
those unremarkable soft funk grooves only to have him launch into an extended, warm,
gentle, and classy jazz piano solo that sounds absolutely fabulous even on top
of the most generic and glossy arrangement imaginable. Another track that
stands out after a few listens is ʽHelp From Youʼ, a slow piece of soul with an
impressive vocal buildup — and it is quite strategically placed near the end of
the album, so that after a series of quiet, unassuming, humble grooves you get
this one particular spiritual statement where the man gives it his all,
suddenly becoming a vocal powerhouse for six minutes and not losing an ounce of
his usual sincerity at that.
Overall, this is by no means a bad record; it
merely confirms the man's complete resignation from any truly «creative» angle,
let alone the more demanding «experimental», but the mix of ancient and modern
stylistic influences is still intelligent (it is not often, after all, that you
find Phil Spector-style vocal harmonies, Ray Charles-style keyboards and disco basslines on the same album),
the man's aura is still pleasant, and as far as generic entertainment from 1978
is concerned, this is a far better proposition than a great percentage of
chart-hitting disco burners.
"sounding more like a Russian folk song than a patriotic English anthem"
ReplyDeleteMore like in the 70's a West-European thought a Russian folk song had to sound like. It isn't exactly like Mussorgsky's Gopak but much more like Drs. P.'s Dodenrit from 1974.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaL1pO3qAw
Drs. P was Swiss-Dutch, known for his peculiar irony. Alan Price may have had a similar intention.