I was thriiled and honoured to get an invitation from Meat to attend the first music media promotional launch of the new album yesterday in London. There were 100+ journalists invited, to have Meat explain this amazing new album before, as he put it, holding us captive whilest we listened to it from start to finish. He has told us this will rock our socks off! He says to us we think we know what's in it? Well we don't!!!!!!! And he didn't understate .. not one bit!
During his opening presentation, over all what strikes me is .. yes, there's humour, huge enthusiasm .. he's persuasive, informative, interesting .. but mainly it's the clear and honest conviction .. the genuine belief he has in this album. Meat and it are bonded somehow .. it possesses him, he has put his soul into it. I think of the train analogy he used about getting BOOH accepted .. that has always described so well his drive, guts and determination .. head down, keep pushing until that sucker wins!
This time it's somehow different to me .. Evangelistic is not the right word, with all its connotations of tub-thumping hallelujah merchants .. but that's the word that keeps coming to me .. This presentation may be easy, entertaining and accomplished .. but it's not slick. There's a raw honesty to it that is compelling. He's saying this record is ME .. I AM this record. You may love me or hate me .. but I believe this is special, different, new. I've finally been able to put me into an album, and I'm asking you to listen because I want you to believe too.
As I sit there listening to the album I am just lifted away, stunned and amazed. From the opening crash of an anvil at the start which introduces an orchestra giving you the incredible and angry sounds of war, the tracks roll on, one after another, and I am blown away. In part lifted away glimpsing what the soldier sees as he lies there, bleeding and close to death .. in part feeling as if I am there hearing Meat and a group of incredibly talented musicians deliver every track live, as in concert.
Meat has taken a seat right behind me .. and I'm a little conscious of that, but not for very long. I think he is just sitting there, eyes closed, head nodding .. as he said, he loves listening to it, and I can understand why now!
It would be impossible to give a track by track review .. and it wouldn't be right. Meat describes this album as a film .. you don't review pieces of a film, you have to watch the whole thing to understand it and to review it .. and this film is incredibly complex and multi-layered; one viewing couldn't do it justice. It needs to be heard in its entirety .. or rather listened to in its entirety, and not just once, before you can understand it. And even though you may be blown away the first time I have the feeling this process will continue with every listening .
Each track just builds from the previous one and into the next .. the experience is amazing. It's as if everyone, Meat and every single player (and John MIcelli on drums is just awe-inspiring) threw every imaginable boundary away. The other word Meat's used a lot is "huge" .. and it just sums up the whole roller-coaster ride that the album takes you on.
From the huge sound of the first stunning track which pulls you in and sucks the soul out of you, then tosses you into the second which was SO massive that halfway through I find the tears starting in my eyes, and just feel a wave of pride for what Meat's achieved, this album is something beyond .... Meat's used words like "raw" and "edgy" .. and now I think I truly understand what he was trying to convey .. And EVERYthing is just so balanced, his voice is so powerful, the arrangements amazing, the instrumentals carried to the edge and then on for a few miles .. The single due for release and played on Radio 2 last week, Los Angeloser, may not be like the other tracks, but after the emotional rawness and huge sound of the first two, it has a perfect fit for me .. and it still grabs me the more I hear it. I think it's a terrific single, even if it doesn't mirror the raw power of some of the other tracks. I love the humour, the beat .. the sheer delight of it .. And then we pound on through the album, every time you think you know the direction it's going Meat takes you off into a completely new one.
As the final track begins I feel like I do when I hear the chords of BOOH strike up at a concert .. OMG .. it's nearly over! How can the time have run through my fingers like that? And as the record closes and Meat gets up and walks to the front again, there is a huge and deserved burst of applause.
In the aftermath, and I use the word advisedly .. lol .. it's ipossible to recall it track by track. There's something very powerful too about just being there, uninterrupted, and hearing it through from opening crash to stunning finish. Most new albums I listen to with distractions .. If I want a coffee I stop play and get one .. if the phone rings I do the same.
This one demands the experience Meat gave us today I think .. and imo demands it be repeated. There are songs that stand alone and stand wonderfully .. but listened to in its entirety just blows one away, because the parts are pretty overwhelming, but the whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts!!! I can understand why Meat just loves to sit there and listen to the whole each time. I can understand his utter conviction and pride in what he and Rob Cavallo have produced together.
Meat tells me I need to listen to it many times to understand all the layers of the story that weaves through this album, to appreciate the depth of some songs, and I believe him. The sounds, the colours are still whirling round in my head .. and Meat's voice, which is so REAL as well as powerhouse on this album that has been produced to perfection.
I keep trying to put my finger and my words on what it IS about this album. There's a kind of paradox for me .. in that there is so much talent, skill and expertise brought together and allowed to explode into a huge powerful sound full of twists and turns and complexities, yet at the same time there is such a clean real feel to it. For a studio album it has this incredible sense of a live performance .. I'm not left wondering how this track or that would sound live .. I feel like I've experienced it.
Operatic it isn't .. no, it's the pure and utterly unfettered rock Meat has in his vision, which is more exciting and challenging than any opera I've heard .. It's not bombast either .. nothing of pretension here, this is raw, but never rough, honesty .. Bomb-blast perhaps .. because it pounds into your soul and threatens to shatter it :)
This is not only unfettered rock ... this is unfettered Meat ... and the ride is amazing .. the twists and turns leave you breathless .. the adventure huge ..
All I can say is ..
I'm a believer! .. and now I have no socks :)
Caryl
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Meat Loaf for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Let's help him get there!
