James Beastly laughs in the face of inevitable calamity and drinks pink cocktails by the side of the twisted wreck. But even the greatest rock clowns have to shed a tear sometimes.
Beastly’s latest album, “Junk Values”, is a mournful affair that occasionally degenerates into a party. There’s plenty to be sad about and plenty to celebrate. The world just won’t give Beastly enough time to decide which he’d rather do.
If spending one’s life either mocking the world or weeping about it sounds like some self-induced schizophrenia, the world of contrasts is nothing new for Beastly. Here’s a man who accessories his Alberts Camus or Allen Ginsberg shirts with backward baseball caps and leather vests. Here’s a rare breed with the energy to live life and not just think about it.
Musically too, Beastly is stuck between worlds. The album opener, “The Arc of Youth”, is propelled by effervescent indie-rock guitars. But the cavernous post-punk vocals have a strongly sobering effect.
The lead single, “Tragedy Dolls,” features the kind of stylish, mysterious sounds that wouldn’t have been out of place on a 1980s record by The Psychedelic Furs or Simple Minds.
James Beastly’s image may suggest that this is the kind of person who could do a comedy routine around first-hand traumatic experiences. This also makes him haunted. The introspective “Dark Horse Dreams” or “The Absurb Horizon” reveal a songwriter prepared to wrestle with weighty topics.
Still, even as he does, Beastly can’t avoid seeing the funny side of disaster. Songs like “Popular Myth” or “Vacant Games” contain the musician’s wry observations about a world that perpetually seems to disappoint.
What’s it all mean? Typically Beastly doesn’t sound like the man who’d spell it out. However, on the title track, “Junk Values,” with its theatrical 80s-inspired sound, the inspired line “I can’t bargain with the truth” might be the closest definition of the songwriter’s work. Everything is immensely sad and funny if you really think about it, and James Beastly can’t resist the temptation of talking about both these things.
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