Album Review
By Henry Lipput
There's a very good chance you'll have the best time this year listening to an album when you hear the new one from Simon Love. If you're like me, there'll be more than a little toe-tapping, head-bobbing, and smiling involved.
Sincerely S. Love x (It's a kiss, and you should say it like that.) is Love's second solo album, and it's a wonderful pop-fest full of a liberal dose of swear words. But some of the swear words aren't used as insults but to emphasize the feelings in the songs.
For example, one of my favorites songs from the album (and actually one of my new favorite songs from anyone) is "I Fucking Love You" which begins like a Boo Radleys' pop tune from their Wake Up! album, and then it slowly morphs into something from Spiritualized. In Love's obsession, "I wrote it on the floor / I wrote in wet cement in letters ten feet tall / I wrote in on a plane / On the window in the condensation that was made by rain." And then what could be a motto for some of the lyrics and titles on the album: "The language may be coarse but sometimes nothing else will do."
"God Bless The Dick Who Let You Go" was a wedding gift for Simon's wife. It starts slowly and then explodes with a full band workout with strings and horns. It's a great listen; and, during the song, Love thanks "mother dear for giving birth," the mobile phone for their first call, her father's sperm, and, of course, the dick who let her go.
On the flip side of this sentiment is the musical kiss-off and full-throttle rocker that is "Not If I See You First:" "I hope it eats at you at night / And you will never see the light / Of the morning without feeling just a shit."
The Love song for "Joey Ramone" has a Spector-ish arrangement and some really fine playing. "The first time I heard your voice / I never thought there could be a better noise." And the bouncy tune for "Golden Boy" could have been written by Harry Nilsson.
"The Ballad of Simon Love" is a mid-60s Dylan story song with some cool Al Kooper-like organ fills. "I've been punching above my weight since 1998 / And yes I've regretted a few / So if you're listening to this / And wondering if / The regret was probably you." There's also a bit in which Love sings, "Never been cool" and a voice replies, "and never will" in the way Lennon responded to McCartney's, "It's getting better all the time" with, "Couldn't get much worse."
The lyrics for the melancholy "Tennis Fan" are another example (in case you needed one) of Love's clever use of words. "I never knew you were a tennis fan / Despite all we went through / How was I to know / That love meant nothing to you?" Is it just me or is there a sound from the Pong game in the mix? The song ends with a gorgeous George Martin-like flourish of strings.
Sincerely, S. Love x is out now on Tapete Records.
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