Estranged

Artist: David J
Label: Heyday
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 735711005623
EAN: 0735711005623
ASIN: B0000BV20T

Release Date: 2003-09-09

Estranged

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General

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Tracks:

The Guitar Man
Mess Up
Pulling Arrows From Our Heels
Ruined Cities
Static Cling
In The Great Blue Whenever
Crashed
If Anythign Should Ever Happen To You
The Ballad Of August And June
Bright In Your Absence
Trophy Wife
Arc Of Return
Estranged
Time In The Sun

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Crocodile Tears & the Velvet Cosh
Songs from Another Season
Urban Urbane
Unshattered
On Glass: The Singles

Amazon.com

David J seventh solo album is a cerebral affair complete with brainy wordplay, sly cultural references, and dreamy folkloric parables. This is where the former Bauhaus/Love & Rockets bassist indulges his whimsical side, creating eccentric and morally ambiguous characters who offer their wry and spot-on asides on modern life and love. While J's singing is deceptively mild, his lyrics are not. He may no longer be a member of Bauhaus, but his irony and dark humor is still honed to a sharp edge, as he paints skewed musical portrait of an array of damaged characters like the near psychopath of "Mess Up," or the teed off husband who plots an elaborate revenge fantasy for his partner in "If Anything Ever Happened to You." However, the artist seems to have shed most of the chilly, dissonant musicianship that colored the music of his former bands, adopting an almost Beatlesque sound. Breaking up the prettiness is the feral and guitar playing of Dave Navarro on "Guitar Man," the Bread chestnut that David J. seems inordinately attached to, having covered it previously on an EP. <I>--Jaan Uhelszki</I>

Customer Reviews:

A genuine songwriter, folks...........2005-08-19

The history of this album alone makes it pretty special. Just before I bought it I read an online interview with David J. I'm pretty sure he now lives in California. Actually Love and Rockets might all live there. Anyway, this album is the only album David J worked on that he owns the rights and masters to. Recorded in 1999-2000, finally released in 2002. He self-financed it exclusively with proceeds from auctioning twenty years of Bauhaus /Love and Rockets memorabilia from out of his closet on Ebay!! He took this step because he knew he was going to put his heart into making it. The whole album is about intimacy and loss.

OK, so about the music. It's really evident here that all the songs have their own distinct character. The whole things seems fully realized and incredibly concise. David J's arrangements are wonderful, encompassing his usual use of guitar (acoustic, electric and slide), piano, drums (real kit and also beat box programming), and the slightest touches of synthesizer effects and cameo instruments. For the most part, the saddest songs are up the first half of the album, and the lighter ones towards the end - except for the bittersweet "Estranged". The song forms here haven't changed one bit from what he established in earlier times, although the subject matter is starkly new. It seems actually that David J has spun these songs as if he is synthesizing all of what he learned on earlier albums. This is slightly distracting for me, because the thing I love about Bauhaus and everything that followed is the care taken to never repeat anything. However with this album it is a self-reflection (on himself personally and his solo work too) that seems to be a deliberate choice. I really like all that David J has ever done, and this one musically feels closest to his second record, Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Coch, which alas is still not reissued on CD. In a landscape where pop music vogues constantly flash by, what a wonderful thing it is to have David J records, a body of work that really channels the tradition of songwriting economy. After my being tempted to ignore Estranged, my collection now thankfully includes it.

Thank you Mr. David J, you have many fans.

Almost Perfect.......2004-12-15

David J's body of work has created a very high standard. Even if we ignore his hugely influential and groundbreaking work with Bauhaus and Love & Rockets, Mr. J has put a number of truly timeless masterpiece albums.

Th tone of the album at times reminds me - favorably - of Beck's 'Sea Change.' 'Static Cling' and 'Estranged' are painfully sad and beautiful songs about the apparant end of a marriage. I find these songs particularly heart-wrenching having listened to David J's album 'Songs from Another Season' constantly from the age of 14 through the present. For the uninitiated, that album's lyrics offered a touchingly pleasant view of marriage, children and life in general. There were entire songs devoted to the importance of a good work ethic and counting one's blessings. Who else writes songs about that stuff? 'Songs from Another Season,' with it's nearly ideal view of conventional adult life had a profound effect on me and certainly on others. I would truly not be the person I am today without that album. So to hear songs on this new album about the disintegration of the marriage that seemed to ground his previous work is really a very painful experience. Surely it takes real creative talent to have that kind of effect on an audience.

This is a very good album with some very high points but it falls just shy of the 5 star standard that the artist's past work demands. Lower points include 'Pulling Arrows from Our Heels' and 'In the Great Blue Whenever.' Both songs - and moments of others - needed a little more work. Perhaps I am venturing into analyzing things that a critic ought not to, but David J's past solo work tended to involve a creative partner in the studio. A producer to insist that rough edges be smoothed out and point out that certain touching lines may also be cliched. No matter how brilliant an artist is, he or she needs that from time to time. This album appears to lack such a partner.

This is very much worth buying and listening to. Any fan of John Cale, Beck's slower work or David Byrne would do well to buy this CD along with any of his earlier work you can get your hands on.

Shelf life = infinity.......2003-10-24

It's all too easy to become excited about a new album from an artist whose work you've loved for many years. Sometimes the results disappoint, or become dulled after a few spins (for example much of David Bowie's recent output). However, there are some recent & extremely notable exceptions, like "Estranged" (along with Sparks "Lil Beethoven" & John Cale "Hobosapiens"). Virtually all David Js solo & Love & Rockets work since his artistically timeless 1983 "Etiquette of Violence" album, is impossible to tire of, & I suspect I'll be playing "Estranged" regularly until the day I expire. Knotty, dark pop beats with twisting refrains, beautifully produced acoustic/electric/string melodies, wonderful lead & backing vocals, & lyrics which stop you in your tracks, like when a supremely-written novel keeps you on the same page, rendering you unable to turn from truly poetically stated perceptions & feelings or a staggering metaphor. This record, musically & lyrically, is deeply sad, hopelessly hopeful, unspeakably beautiful, subtly deranged & bloody good. Buy it.

David J grows me up, and then take me back.......2003-10-18

I grew through being a teenager with David's music and words, in his various bands. His music grew more mature, and yet remained connected to that youth. Now I have a real job and two little boys, and David's still right there.

He doesn't sing like a man who knows he has been a legend. Here we see the thin, lone(ly) man behind the cutain of Bauhaus and Love&Rocket's mighty wizardry.

One criticism: too much slide guitar. It costs him a star.

a Zen Tone review.......2003-10-15

I have to correct myself, due to the fact I'm a music snob.

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