Believe the Hype? Peter Perrett has in the last
40 years released four albums, the last one in 1996. This album has been
garnered with pretty much universal praise, and you’d expect it to do well in
the music monthlies end of year polls on the back of these glowing write ups.
More importantly the two tracks released pre-album are both, at worst, superb.
It’s these two tracks that open the album.
The title track is a drawling look at America
rolling in on a George Harrison/Bob Dylan country style groove, Peters voice,
half sung, half spoken springs from the speakers, up front in the mix and sounds
magnificent. The lyrics cover everything from making suicide vests via internet
instructions to a fascination with Kim Kardashians bum. It’s a great opening
but for me it’s a warm up for the second single/track two. ‘An Epic Story’ is
brilliant, it’s a romantic overture to Peters wife of nearly 50 years, Zena, who
we hear has had to put up with a hell a lot over the years. ‘I’ll always be
your man, No-one could love me the way you can, If I could live my whole life
again, I’d choose you, every time’ are lines any man would be proud to write
for their life’s muse. Honestly, track of the year, hands down. It’s a family
affair too as Peters sons are in his wonderful band.
And then we’re on to the rest of the album,
kept under wraps until the day of release. ‘Hard to Say No’ is a confessional
rock track, well played, sung and lyrically guarded enough to get the listener engaged.
‘Troika’ is tale of a complicated love
affair involving three people, but at its heart Perrett is still devoted to his
one true love, all backed by a wracked and faithful doowop backing. And Peter
sounds great throughout, reviews have made much of the damage done to his voice
through substance and general life abuse and how Peter has had to relearn to
sing, and seriously, his vocal performance is top notch, recognisable, coherent
and confident. Lyrically we’re not a million miles away from previous work, but
there’s great focus and belief. The songs are about survival, re-emergence,
defiance; but most of all devotion and true faith for Zena. This is an acerbic
rock album that manages to be grateful, touching and sweet too. It’s no mean
feat.
There’s no let-up in quality either, no filler
and no one song overstays it’s welcome, in fact the longer tracks seem shorter
than they are, such are their hooks and the attention they demand. This is an
old school album, 10 tracks, an A and a B side, and it’s relentless in a good
way. And it’s an album that builds to a very strong finish too. ‘C Voyeurger’
is a creeping, tense ballad that a really displays a great craftmanship from a
songwriter that (in terms of releases) does not have prolificacy to thank for
helping hone his craft. ‘Something In My Brain’ tries to explain where Perrett
is as far as state of mind is concerned in his current stage of life, ‘…I didn’t
die, At least not yet, I’m still just about capable, Of one last defiant breath’.
His life is pictured as an experiment on a rat, though at the end unlike the
rat Peter has chosen life, defeating the obstacles placed in front of him and
coming out in better shape with a new-found dedication to his life, love and
art. And final track, ‘Take me Home’ brings together all the strings of Peters
life and ties them together, ‘I couldn’t be what I wanted, You made me a better
man’. And so ends a great, concise album, a triumph against the odds. A career
best? Believe the hype, yes. And it leaves you wanting more, this could well be
the last we see from Peter Perrett in terms of new music, but let’s hope not,
it’s intriguing and natural to want to see where the man presented on this
album is able to take himself in the future. But for now, Peter Perrett is
home, a rock troubadour, revelling in the bosom of his family and looking
forward in life.
10/10.
Believe the Hype.
