Super 8, HI LO, 2018

Album Review

By Henry Lipput

Super 8 has accomplished a musical hat trick of sorts with his new album HI LO. It's his third album to be released this year; and, if you think by now Super 8 has nothing to say either lyrically or musically, then you really need to get this album. HI LO is not only the best album of the three but may very well be the best album of the year.

On TURN AROUND OR... from June (It's strange to write that; when I usually note when a previous album has been released, it's connected to a year), Super 8 got a little help from his musical friends. But with HI LO, as with January's T-T-T-Technicolour Melodies, he's back to being a one-man Wrecking Crew, playing all of the instruments and also acting as writer, arranger, and producer.

This is nowhere more evident then on HI LO's upbeat opening track "Mr. Sunshine" with its mix of instruments and an ending that could have taken Brian Wilson a studio full of musicians to record (hence the reference to the Wrecking Crew) and tapes put together from multiple sessions. The song begins with a rooster crowing, and I can't help hearing it without thinking of the beginning of Sgt. Pepper's "Good Morning." Coincidence? I think not.

The new album also sees the musical wizard Super 8 aka Trip stepping out from behind the curtain as the Englishman (now living in Scotland) Paul Ryan. As a result, HI LO has some of the most autobiographical lyrics of any previous Super 8 album.

The rocking "She Makes Me Feel Alright" is a love song to his wife who throughout his musical ups and downs has stood by his side. "When I'm on the verge of losing it / She says well just go out there and try and write a hit / Don't make it too long / Just write a pop song / So this one's for you."

The beautiful and heartfelt "Angels & Neil Diamond" also seems to come from Ryan's life experience. It's  a song about being a kid: "Heading way out west / Which was the top of the street / We would ride in the road side by side / Jam jars and fishing nets tied to our back / Till we got to the stream by the railway track." Then, living through a near tragedy forces a young man to grow up and the last lines of the song have an emotional punch.

And if you were putting together a mixtape you would, of course, immediately follow a song that mentioned Neil Diamond with a song by Neil Diamond. That's just what Ryan does with his terrific cover of "Cherry, Cherry."

Then there's the awesome "If Ignorance Is Bliss" a musical tip-of-the-hat to The Smiths with some really Marr-velous guitar work and an opening burst of harmonica. With lyrics like "If ignorance is bliss / We should feel happy all the time / So why are you so sad?" the song brings to mind Bob Dylan's "Idiot Wind."

Speaking of Dylan, HI LO's "Bob Dylan Said That" has a jazzy feel and channels Dylan's stream-of consciousness style of writing in the lyrics: "We are stuck in a mobile standing at the turnstiles gotta roll with the punches to get your free lunches it takes a lot to laugh it takes a train to cry / Bob Dylan said that / I don't know why." Ryan then adds his own take on this approach and ends a verse with: "I said that."

One of my favorite songs on HI LO is "Drive You Home." There's a wash of organ to introduce it; and, in the middle, there's some McCartney style bass and a Louis Armstrong-like horn. In addition to the bass work, the song has a real Wings feel to it and could have been a lost song from the Back To The Egg sessions.

The album ends with the sighting of the morning star when the planet Venus is seen just before sunrise. The lyrics for "Morning Star" are some of the best that Ryan has written: "Sometimes I wake and can’t even remember my name /Four in the morning I’m walking these streets once again / Feel like I spend most my life in a dream / Finding it hard to distinguish between all these chancers and Muppets, good folks and false prophets." I really like this line, too: "Stock up on coffee and fake news to get through the day."

And when he asks, "Are you the morning star shining for everyone?" the music swells. On hearing it, like me, you might just have found your newest morning star.

HI LO is out now on Futureman Records.