Silver Lake

その傷ついた天使の歌声は、世の中の滑稽さや悲しさを優しく伝えてくれる…車椅子に座り、ガットギターをつまびきながら詩的な言葉を紡ぐカルト的シンガー・ソングライター、VIC CHESNUTT(ヴィック・チェスナット)。既にあらゆるトピックを人とは違う視点で取り上げながら、物事の核心に鋭く切り込んでいくというスタイルを確立した彼が2003年に発表した、通算9作目となるスタジオ・アルバム、新リマスター音源&ボーナス・トラックを追加収録した2枚組180グラム重量盤アナログで登場!

Uncut (5/03, p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...His obvious poetic and melodic gifts have seldom sounded so compelling..." Dirty Linen (4/04, pp.50-1) - "SILVER LAKE finds him once again impressive....Chesnutt is a true original with the pen." Mojo (Publisher) (5/03, p.97) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Big, attractive, textured and ornate. Full and lush, yet somehow homey and direct..."

In many ways, Vic Chesnutt fits more comfortably in the great tradition of Southern literature than Southern rock & roll -- with his elegant, slightly off-kilter wordplay and comfortably elliptical storytelling style, Chesnutt has as much in common with, say, Flannery O'Connor as anyone in contemporary music. Which is to say that Vic Chesnutt doesn't sound much like anyone else, which is at once his blessing and his curse; it's hard to pitch him to most people because he's unique to the point of being an anomaly, but once you've acquired a taste for Chesnutt's emotionally generous eccentricity, it's hard to get enough of him. While Silver Lake sounds like a Vic Chesnutt album through and through, it's also a better than average introduction to the man's work; here, producer and engineer Mark Howard gives the performances an open, natural sound that puts the top-shelf band assembled for the occasion (including Doug Pettibone, Darryl Johnson, Patrick Warren, and Don Heffington) at its best advantage, and Chesnutt himself is in superb voice, inhabiting his characters with the sure and easy grace of a gifted actor. But the best thing about a Vic Chesnutt album is always the songs, and that's certainly the case here; in Chesnutt's world, life-changing romance can be found at band camp, the gulf between the sexes is at once funny and tragic, a eunuch can understand the love of both body and spirit better than the sultan he serves, and love can wound and soothe given the circumstances -- Chesnutt's stories always strike an honest and recognizable emotional chord, no matter how oddball the situations that surround them. You're not going to hear an evocation of love like "Sharing breakfast from one plate/Holding hands over loved ones' graves/Do you think I deserve it?/I say yes in my way yes" from anyone else, and the curious but heart-tugging beauty of lines like this are all the reason you need to give Vic Chesnutt and Silver Lake an honored space in your record collection. ~ Mark Deming

その歌詞の世界がアメリカ南部の女流作家フラナリー・オコナーに例えられ、その歌声をR.E.M.のマイケル・スタイプにリスペクトされ、トリビュート盤にはスパークルホースからマドンナまでが参加した、車椅子のシンガー・ソングライター、ヴィク・チェスナット。ディープ・アメリカの歪んだ美しさを描写させれば右に出るもののいない彼の新作は、ここ数年のなかでもベストといえる仕上がり。酒瓶の底で寝っ転がって微笑みながら、人生という皮肉に満ちたカーニヴァルを口ずさむようなストーリーテラーぶりはまさに真骨頂。フィオナ・アップルやエイミー・マンのバックで活躍するパトリック・ウォーレンらが参加したバンドの描写力も素晴らしい。かつてラムチョップとも共演したヴィクだけど、ここにはバンドとの濃密なコラボレートから生まれた揺るぎない歌の力がある。南部ゴシックの奇妙な夢を映し出した銀色の湖がキラキラと。
bounce (C)村尾 泰郎