Wtorek 3 Mar 2009, 16:16
You know about these albums that start with the best song? This is a very good example. Sunshine Superman starts with (rarara) Sunshine Superman, which is a fantastic song. No, I didn't know anything about Donovan except "Mellow Yellow" (which I really like) and no, I had no idea what to expect, but luckily my more than decent amount of Hitbox cd's made Sunshine Superman sound familiar. A sample of it is used in Imani Coppola's "Legend Of a Cowgirl" and is it a coincidence the next song on this album is called "Legend of a Girl Child Linda"? I guess not!
Now, the thing about albums that start with their best song, is that they start with their best song. So you know quite quickly it isn't getting better than this. Luckily the second best songs are more at the end of the album. Clever guy, that Donovan!
There are probably a lot of things that can be said about this album, but what comes out best is the personality of the singer. Listening to this album reveals that he has a very strong personality. I can't really tell why, but these songs have something really expressive. Sure, it is singer-songwriter music, quite calm, but it has some weird undertones and signs of a twisted personality. I can be wrong of course. Or maybe I'm a little bit influenced by the album cover, a special (but ugly) combination of kitsch and ehum well… kitsch.
Maybe this music compares best to The Beau Brummels's Triangle: again you get a troubadour feeling about this music. Except for Sunshine Superman. That riff is way too hip to be medieval music. But the other songs are different. And they're not all really that special either. But there are some very good songs too: Bert's Blues (about Bert Jansch!), Season Of The Witch, The Trip (What goes on? Chick-a-chick), Celeste.
While reading Donovan's wikipedia page I discovered he was an actor in a movie called "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium". Well, it's tuesday today and I am in Belgium! Is that a coincidence? I guess not!
(No idea what it means though….)
(Pareltjes voor de zwijnen: Sunshine Superman, Bert's Blues, Season Of The Witch, The Trip, Celeste)