Pros: Lush, lyrical songs highlighted by a thoroughly modern take on jazz and cabaret.
Cons: That it doesn't come with a copy of the book it's a soundtrack for.
The Bottom Line: A lush and extremely evocative album that combines modern electronica with 1920s jazz, I, Lucifer is one of the most delightfully surprising records of 2004. An absolute gem.
kknox0616's Full Review: I, Lucifer [Digipak] by The Real Tuesday Weld
(NOTE: This review originally appeared in an alternate form in the Los Angeles gay and lesbian publication, Frontiers. All rights held solely by the author.)
One of my favorite things to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon is head down to the local coffee shop on Cahuenga and just sit there with my laptop and try to come up with witty things to say in reviews like these for products a lot of you people have never heard about. There's something so wonderfully arty about that lackadaisical vibe that you get from sitting around with your scone and iced hazelnut latte while being creative.
Thankfully, coffee house proprietors realize this, and tend to play music that matches that vibe. You know the music I'm talking about: ambient, jazzy, acoustic-meets-techno stuff like Everything but the Girl, Poe, and Morcheeba that puts you into an ambient, jazzy (and therefore) arty kind of mood. It's just the kind of environment that is perfect for writing that next Hollywood blockbuster--you know, about the neurotically sensitive gay guy looking for love in the City of, um, Angels while trying to break into the movie business. ('Cause you just know that Hollywood is breaking down my door for those kinds of stories!) It's exactly that mood that British hipster Stephen Coats (aka the Clerkenwell Kid, aka The Real Tuesday Weld) attempts--and brilliantly succeeds--to recreate on his stunningly evocative new release, I Lucifer.
In his 2002 novel of the same name, English author Glen Duncan traces the steps of the Prince of Darkness as he inhabits a human body to take God up on the deal of a lifetime: he will be granted reentry into Heaven's gates if he can live a well-behaved life on earth. Through prose both witty and eloquent, Duncan follows the "lucky devil" on his hilarious excursions into sex, love, and screenwriting, delivering a novel of wickedly fun proportions.
Inspired by Duncan's crafty story, European hipster Stephen Coates (aka The Real Tuesday Weld) set about composing an "imaginary soundtrack" for the book, and came up with his own decidedly unique take on I, Lucifer.
Lifting (and radically reworking) selected songs from his 2001 release Where Cupid Meets Psyche, and using Duncan's novel as a blueprint, Coates matches the earlier tracks with newly written and recorded additions and bathes them in a luxuriant production that mixes elements of 1920s Berlin cabaret with contemporary electronica. In the process, he comes up with one of the most surprisingly delightful and original records of last year, one that creates an entirely new genre of music that I'm dubbing "cabertronica" (sort of what you'd get if Falco or Tom Waits were to sing classic jazz standards set to the music of Everything but the Girl or the Pet Shop Boys).
After a lush spoken-word intro by Duncan himself (playing the Devil), the unlikely dance floor hit "Bathtime in Clerkenwell" kicks in, its unintelligible, Swahili-esque vocals mixing with the filtered sound of 1920s radio jazz music to create a wholly unique sonic gem. From there, the record settles into a decidedly "lazier" groove, with slower, loungier arrangements that highlight the supple beauty of the instrumentation and the clever musicianship and guest turns by recruited vocalists in the various roles from the novel. Choice cuts include the dreamy "The Ugly and the Beautiful" (and its lovely French reprise, "La Bete Et La Belle"), the attitude-heavy "The Life and Times of the Clerkenwell Kid," the exquisite "Easter Parade," the lackadaisical "Someday (Never)" (as well as its slightly more upbeat reprise, "Someday (Soon)"), and the deliriously giddy "(Still) Terminally Ambivalent Over You," truly the disc's standout track, a tune of such slap-happy charm and wit that it will have you humming its infectious melody for days.
In fact, once the full aural repercussions of this altogether distinctive album sink in, you probably won't take it out of your CD player for days. It's perfect music for a lazy Sunday afternoon in a small Parisian cafe'--or for just sitting around your house enjoying a quiet day listening to an album that defies categorization but is sure to become your favorite new CD. Or, better yet, buy the book and put the CD on repeat and revel in what a great time you're having.
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![I, Lucifer [Digipak] by The Real Tuesday Weld](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/29/32/15/2006756166-177x150-0-0.jpg)
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