One of popular music’s mightiest talents, Leonard Cohen, at the age of 82, has a new album out in the Autumn, the fabulously titled You Want It Darker. If it’s anywhere near as good as his last one, this is great news. Those, however, who can’t wait until its arrival, may wish to check out the debut solo effort from Maarten Devoldere of the Belgian group Balthazar. It also has a great title, lifted directly from the pages of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and it boasts a deliciously Cohen-esque sensibility.
Other reference points might be Johnny Cash, especially on the cantering chug of “The Good Lie”, or perhaps Lee Hazlewood, but the backdrop throughout has an electronic feel, layered with instrumentation that has an understated jazziness (and on the closing “Time and Again”, a lazy, Latin easy listening roll). We Fucked a Flame Into Being rarely raises the tempo and never grows loudly excitable, but there are moments when pop songwriting takes over, such as the catchy “Machinery” and the sassy swing rhythm of “Against the Rich”; meanwhile, “Bruxelles” has a wonderful, string-laden torch song opulence.
And then there are the lyrics. Delivered in a world-weary growl, they have a darkly comic edge. The climactic verse of “Against the Rich” runs thus: “I’ve got one hand on a champagne drinking cunt/I’ve got the other up the ass of the establishment/And I can’t even distinguish which hand is which.” Or how about “You want magic, count me in/You want Jesus, well I’m not him,” from “I’m Not Him”. If we’re talking Laughin’ Len, I’d pin Devoldere as a man who walks in the giant shadow of I’m Your Man and The Future, Cohen’s mordantly humorous sallies at synth-pop. It’s a great place to be and this is a fine album.
