I've listened the album 5x via the NPR link (awaiting my CD from Amazon) and can't help but think this is Moz's jazz album. Weird song structures, strange instruments and a song about beat poet Neil Cassady? The writing is on the CD. Is there life after Alain Whyte? Yes, but....it's certainly the strangest Moz album in his canon and I find it lacking in so many ways.
First of all the lyrics. There's a lot of bad poetry here. From Neil Cassady ("Allen Ginberg's tears shampoo his beard" & "Babies full of rabies") to Earth ("But you're in the wrong skin and the skin that you're in says, Oh, let it begin") are so petty and very un-Moz-like. Where is the perception into a life lived alone and the foreboding wit and laughter about such a life? Oboe Concerto breaks the camel's back, "Round, rhythm goes round" which has to the weakest and most absurd lyric I've heard in ages. Really, Moz, is this the best you can do? Where is the art in your words?
My second gripe is the song structures. Why is World a ballad? For a song down-crying and lambasting world governments, you would think that a pounding and pulsing song structure such as Mama Lay Softly or Maladjusted would be in order. And why is Earth is the Loneliest an uptempo, flamenco number? When I heard the song title, I thought, "pure genius!" and then I heard the song (and lyrics) and it only went downhill from there. This should be a ballad like You were Good or I know it's gonna and should be accompanied by Boz on acoustic guitar but no, it gets the Spanish mariachi treatment. Absurd.
Another gripe is the lack of melodies and ringing choruses. There's not a whole lot on here I can sing to. It's no secret that Alain Whyte was instrumental in providing harmony and had a keen ear for melody so I'm not surprised that his absence leads to an absence of melody and harmony. Will I be singing Smiler with a Knife (by far the worst song on the album) or Istanbul in 5 years time? A deadening No is my reply. Kiss me a lot has potential but is ruined by poor lyrics (a follow-up to the superior Let Me Kiss You years later? Moz isn't good at getting what he wants as he's best when he's longing). Ditto for Staircase who's subject matter and lyrics are so beyond the pale, they have colour.
And lastly, the album never quite gets off the ground. I think the song I'm Not a Man could've been so much better had they chopped on the dull intro and had Moz really reached for a peak vocally and melodically like he did on It's not your birthday or Irish Blood but it nurses itself back to sleep all too soon. Poor production can only be the culprit. Istanbul suffers the same fate, intriguing verses but the chorus doesn't rise or swerve enough to make it memorable. Kick the Bride, though lyrically quite interesting, plods along going nowhere fast.
That said, I quite like Bullfighter (here the Spanish rhythm & guitar suit/soothe), Mountjoy & Staircase (sans the subject matter). And other songs like I'm not a Man, Kiss me a lot and World Peace have potential but are ruined by either poor lyrics or song structure.
Should World Peace (the album) be lumped in the murky depths of Kill Uncle & Southpaw? Not quite as retched, but it's a long way from the soaring Moz heights of Your Arsenal, You are the Quarry and Years of Refusal.
2.5/5 stars
