What could be better to set a mood for a sticky sweaty summer night than a creepy af record from a Nick Cave collaborator and David Lynch soundtrackee (an artist who appeared on a soudtrack, look it up)? Especially when everybody outside is barely dressed and the record title alludes to a dude who killed his dad and fucked his momma (albeit unknowingly)? Yay, Barry Adamson!
The story goes smth like this: One day Barry Adamson got a call from David Lynch saying that he just listened to Oedipus Shmoedipus for 8 hours and it was like hearing Hitch’s movies inside his head and that he needs this in his next movie. Pretty much sums it up, you can stop reading here.
The record opens with “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Pelvis”, a scene from an orgy sung with a sleazy kitschiness by Jarvis Cocker and the tension only keeps building up from there.
It is followed by a masterpiece of acid jazz dark sex which is “Something Wicked This Way Comes”. The latter was featured in the scene in The Lost Highway where we meet Mystery Man, the essence of a creep. Fun fact: the actor who played Mystery Man was tried for killing his wife a few years after the film’s release and his story was incorporated in the character of Cliff Booth in Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. End of fun fact.
If you’re thinking “that’s enough seedy bar soundtracks” by this point you’re wrong!
The very next "The Vibes Ain't Nothin' but the Vibes” is a nod to Lynch collaborator, Angelo Badalamenti with all the necessary cinematic gothiness included. The lyrics, describe “Horny black boy with a frisky white girl” who are “secretly conspiring to murder each other” only to “come together on a warm moonlit night In spite of themselves”.
And after that dark but admittedly romantic moment (if you find The Lost Highway romantic, of course) comes the truly terrifying “It’s Business As Usual” with its atonal scary loop providing a backdrop for an answering machine recording of something reminiscent of a serial killer encounter.
Next is an upbeat jazzy tribute to “Miles” who? Could’ve been an ad jingle, but it is not and I don’t know why. Why, Barry?
“Dirty Barry” sounds like a nod to the Get Up With It-era Miles and its title is more of a “duh” moment.
“In a Moment of Clarity” provides a sudden moment of tender jazzy clarity before diving into trip-hop tinted "Achieved in the Valley of Dolls”. Scratching and beautiful vocals included.
“Vermillion Kisses” is an audiobook-style murder ballad. That could’ve been a spoiler but c’mon did you expect them to live happily ever after on this record?
"The Big Bamboozle” sounds like an execution scene from an opera with a horn section to get drunk to.
“State of Contraction” is a sombre piano number with emotive synth strings. Boring description, great track.
"The Sweetest Embrace” features Nick Cave on vocals and sounds like some of the Cave’s own output of the era although with less drunken alt blues and more with 50s noir vibe.
The parade ends with "Set the Controls Again”, a rocking swagger with wha-wha guitars and strings to match.
If this is not how you spend your summer nights you’re living it WRONG.
