Ed Kuepper is nothing if not prolific. With age, he is now becoming more reflective and considered, sort of like Marc Ribot, Daniel Lanois or Vini Reilly. Referring to this recording as “solo orchestral” is quite inspired, and he certainly does justice to a seemingly convoluted and deceptive term.
Friends With The Leader evokes images of Stalinist Russia, and sends a shudder down the spine. Free Passage To Mars comes across sombre and solemn as Kuepper sings, “Looking like a victim of an emotional holocaust”. You can just picture the furrowed brow intensity with which he delivers this song.
(It’s) Never Too Late is a classic just waiting for its moment. “You didn’t want to cross the line to see if someone cared,” is a simply gut-wrenching line. But he steers the ship away from despair and sings, “It’s never too late to come back home like a carnival that tumbles by”. It’s this sheer force of will that raises many of the songs to the heights of the sublime.
The Ruins is a little light compared to the songs around it, but after a few listens it becomes quite palatable. It has a monotone manner, almost akin to a speculative spiritual. Fever Dream recalls his previous work whilst he recites in a sinister manner, “There is Mandrake the magician to place a curse on where they live.” Some Said… is about as rock as Lost Cities gets, before winding the record down with Queen Of The Vale (That’s V.A.L.E).
Kuepper deserves a late career renaissance, and as his library-filling back catalogue is gaining the recognition it deserves, a new audience is beginning to appreciate just how impressive this man is.
BY BRONIUS ZUMERIS
