Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence Artist: John Cale
Label: Beggars UK - Ada
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 075679269324
EAN: 0075679269324
ASIN: B0000018BJ


Release Date: 1996-03-12

Artificial Intelligence


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Tracks:

  1. Everytime The Dogs Bark
  2. Dying On The Vine
  3. The Sleeper
  4. Vigilante Lover
  5. Chinese Takeaway (Hong Kong 1997)
  6. Sorig Of The Valley
  7. Fadeaway Tomorrow
  8. Black Rose
  9. Satellite Walk

Similar Items:

  1. Walking on Locusts
  2. The Academy in Peril
  3. Sabotage/Live
  4. Black Acetate
  5. Words for the Dying

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars lacking vitality.......2006-09-12

A sub-par effort with a sterile canned sound quality which, I guess was the bane of a majority 80's music. "Dying on the Vine" caught my ear as a very cool song when it came out, but it seemed a tad too sparse.Later in the early 90's, I saw John Cale perform at a small club-with Chris Spedding!It was fantastic.They did "Dying" with Spedding laying down some killer Spanish flavored riffs. Sublime.The song was finally done justice.

4 out of 5 stars Atmospheric, Unsettling.......2006-01-25

While not one of Cale's "masterpieces," this brooding work from the 80s has a wonderfully melancholy and even ominous feel, created by the sparse, electronic arrangements and jerky rhythmic texture. If you want bright pop songs with tight arrangements, forget it. Cale has never been good at making pop without quirks anyhow, and we wouldn't want it any other way. But if you are in the mood for music that is lyrically suggestive, sparse, with heaving rhythms and dark undertones like the background of a William Blake illuminated print, then check this out.

3 out of 5 stars Two great songs.......2004-07-31

John Cale is a genius with an uneven track record. He has created as many masterpieces as flops but even the latter normally include one or two great songs.

Artificial Intelligence (1985) is not one of his better albums. Everytime The Dogs Bark is somewhat messy without a coherent melody. Dying On The Vine has more of a tune and poetic lyrics, whilst The Sleeper is a slow track with a jazzy feel that doesn't really go anywhere.

Cale's characteristic angry rock surfaces on Vigilante Lover, a song with some great imagery but unfortunately the lack of melody makes it quite forgettable. Chinese Takeaway is an atmospheric instrumental infused with some shouts and laughter and Song Of The Valley is a brooding ballad with interesting instrumentation.

The meat of the album is found in Fade Away Tomorrow, a driving rock song in the mould of that brilliant sequence of Dirty Ass Rock `n Roll/Darling I Need You/Roll A Roll on his Slow Dazzle album. It has a powerful hook and is embellished with beautiful female backing vocals. Black Rose with its swaying rhythms and whistling has its moments too.

The album concludes with the messy Satellite Walk, a jerky rock number without a discernable tune. The only tracks on Artificial Intelligence that stick in the mind are Fade Away Tomorrow and Black Rose. I recommend this album only to the most dedicated John Cale fans and I award it three stars because Cale is one of my favourite musicians. The real rating is probably closer to two or two and a half stars.

1 out of 5 stars No redeeming qualities.......2000-07-13

The professional review above says it all. Yes, "Dying on the Vine" is a significant Cale song, but you can find it in a much more listenable version on the live "Fragments of a Rainy Season" which trashes all the awful synthesizer arrangements and strips it down to Cale's gorgeous, untreated voice and piano.

"Chinese Takeaway" is an embarrsing instrumental that fails to engage the purported subject matter in any coherent way, and "Satellite Walk" is also a ridiculous mess of a song. The sound all the way through is thin and uninspired, and as with many Cale albums that are primarily performed on digital keyboard instruments (or whatever he uses) you often wonder why and how he came up with the sounds he chooses.

Why this record was ever reissued I can't imagine. It would better be left forgotten, much like an early 80's Cale show at a "Chuck E. Cheese" in which he was too drunk to tune his guitar properly.

2 out of 5 stars

Music Album:

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  3. Love Songs of the 80's ~ Various Artists
  4. Independence ~ Slur
  5. Sweet Somewhere Bound ~ Jackie Greene
  6. It Was High Time to Escape ~ 31Knots
  7. Stampede/Monkey's Breath ~ The Meteors
  8. After the War ~ Sleep Station
  9. Loss ~ Mull Historical Society
  10. Colour by Numbers ~ Culture Club

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