SWEET ADDICTION
Music breathes life back into Alejandro Escovedo, writes Andy Gill, as he revels in the dangers of rock’n’roll
Alejandro Escovedo, Burn Something Beautiful
★★★★☆ Download: Horizontal; Suit Of Lights; Shave The Cat; Johnny Volume; Beauty And The Buzz
Long-serving scion of the same thoroughbred Mexican-American musical family that includes his brother, Santana percussionist Coke Escovedo, as well as his niece Sheila E, indie songwriter Alejandro Escovedo has reached his mid-sixties garlanded with more critical and peer acclaim than actual commercial success, and it’s this disparity which serves as the mainspring driving Burn Something Beautiful.
Co-written with REM’s Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey, who also served as producers, it’s an album which muses upon the dangerous lure of the rock’n’roll life, its sweet attractions and deceptive treacheries, and the dedication that drives so many in feverish pursuit of their dreams, with a “bucket of blood in every note I play”, as Escovedo puts it in “Suit Of Lights”, a perfect metaphor for the dangerous glamour of showbiz: for some performers, the bull has the better of the matador most nights.
But there’s an addictive aspect to the quest that keeps musicians coming back, and it’s that celebratory quality that seethes through Burn Something Beautiful, in the clangour of ringing guitars and fizzing fuzztone riffs that drives opener “Horizontal”, in the Velvets-style chug’n’grind street tableau of “Beauty Of Your Smile”, and in the descending churn of sound that imparts a resolute fatalism to “Johnny Volume” as he girds his loins with guitar for the fight ahead. Yet the richness of the rewards has no relation to either remuneration or sophistication, as confirmed by the sheer raggedy-ass joy embodied in the low-slung glam-rock riff and squalling baritone sax of “Shave The Cat”, with its nonsensical invitation to “a rock’n’roll party on a wrestling mat”.
Of course, it’s not all about fun and liberation, especially in your sixties, and songs such as “Redemption Blues”, “Farewell To The Good Times” and “I Don’t Want To Play Guitar Anymore” find Escovedo confronting the disillusion creeping in to sour his life’s devotion. “When there’s no stories left to sing, that’s the end of everything,” he reflects in the latter. But thankfully, Burn Something Beautiful confirms his own fund of creativity is far from drained, the collaboration with Buck and McCaughey resulting in all three’s best work in years – Buck especially invigorated, animating these songs with his characteristically diverse armoury of guitar riffs, arpeggios and flourishes. Ultimately, it’s clear that music is an addiction none of them could ever kick, or want to: as Escovedo sings in “Beauty And The Buzz”, “Play the guitar, son, you’ll always have a friend/You’ll never be alone, the romance never ends .... ”
This review appeared in yesterday’s Independent Daily Edition