John Cale
1919
(Domino)
★★★★★

AFTER parting ways with The Velvet Underground, moving from NYC to LA and with his first marriage over, John Cale released 1919 in 1973.

I’ve long known the Welsh musician’s third solo album is highly respected but up until now I’ve never gotten round to actually listening to it.

Boy, have I been missing out. This reissue, complete with some alternate takes, is a hugely enjoyable and accessible listen, tapping into the orchestral pop of the era. The haunting title track, apparently a reference to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, runs along on Beatlesy strings, while Macbeth is a wonderful Glam Rock boogie. I’m guessing the jaunty Graham Greene is the only song written about having tea with the great 20th-century novelist, with the market town Chipping Sodbury and Enoch Powell name-checked.

A literate, enigmatic and deeply affecting masterwork.

Father John Misty
Mahashmashana
(Bella Union)
★★★★

US singer-songwriter Josh Tillman doesn’t do things by half, does he?

As with all of his albums under the moniker Father John Misty, Mahashmashana is a hugely ambitious work, full of big, orchestral 21st-century ballads.

His sound and louche, sardonic persona is now so well honed, he is artistic marmite to many. I’m very much a fan, so eagerly lap up tracks like the surreal trip tune Josh Tillman And The Accidental Dose, with its amused reference to Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks and Dylan-esque line: “A publicist and a celibate started talking politics.” I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All — he is arguably the greatest namer of songs working today — is another highlight, a well-oiled combination of a country ramble and disco.

Tillman is surely one of “the great-ish minds of my generation” he sings about.

Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road
(Thirty Tigers)
★★★

LIKE Neil Young, old age seems to have massively increased Lucinda Williams’s productivity. As well as last year’s Stories From A Rock ’N Roll Heart record, since 2021 she has released six volumes of her Lu’s Jukebox series, with each release devoted to covers of artists (Tom Petty, Bob Dylan) or genres (’60s Country Classics).

The self-explanatory Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road is the latest addition to this album cycle.

It turns out the US singer-songwriter’s southern drawl and country-soul are well suited to the Fab Four, with most of the set focused on pretty faithful, Americana-style renditions of mostly Blue Album-era Beatles. The version of Don’t Let Me Down sounds like any one of her many lonesome blues songs, as does her marvellous, sludgey run through of George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps.