Cold Fact＜Black Vinyl＞

2012年アカデミー賞長編ドキュメンタリー映画賞を受賞したドキュメンタリー映画『シュガーマン 奇跡に愛された男』で描かれたシンガー・ソングライター Rodriguez の幻の名盤のリイシューが決定!

『Cold Fact』はシンガー・ソングライター Rodriguez のデビュー・アルバム。オリジナル・リリースは1970年3月の米サセックス・レーベル。1971年に南アフリカでA&Mからリリース。1976年にはオーストラリアでもリリースされ、ナショナル・アルバム・チャートで最高位23位、55週に亘ってチャートにランク・インを果たした。1998年には南アフリカでプラチナム・アルバムに認定され、オーストラリアでも5Xプラチナム・アルバムとなった。この両国での成功とは裏腹に、母国アメリカでは無名に近い状態だったRodriguezが再評価されたきっかけは、2008、9年のLight in the Attic Recordsによるリイシューと、2012年にアカデミー賞の長編ドキュメンタリー映画賞を受賞した、Rodriguezを取り上げたドキュメンタリー映画『シュガーマン 奇跡に愛された男』。アメリカでは無名に終わったRodriguezの曲が、1970年代末の南アフリカで反アパルトヘイト闘争のシンボル・ソングとして爆発的にヒットしたという逸話を追ったこの映画によって、Rodriguezの作品が再び脚光を浴びることになった。
180g重量盤ブラック・ヴァイナル。

Spin (p.104) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "COLD FACT is a psych-folk time capsule from a dark era of dreams destroyed." Blender (Magazine) (p.85) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Motown studio musicians made the songs weirdly elegant and lent this cracked classic enough cheap synthesizer wheezes, trombones and inner-city psychedelica to earn its place in the freak-folk pantheon."

There was a mini-genre of singer/songwriters in the late '60s and early '70s that has never gotten a name. They were folky but not exactly folk-rock and certainly not laid-back; sometimes pissed off but not full of rage; alienated but not incoherent; psychedelic-tinged but not that weird; not averse to using orchestration in some cases but not that elaborately produced. And they sold very few records, eluding to a large degree even rediscovery by collectors. Jeff Monn, Paul Martin, John Braheny, and Billy Joe Becoat were some of them, and Sixto Rodriguez was another on his 1970 LP, Cold Fact. Imagine an above-average Dylanesque street busker managing to record an album with fairly full and imaginative arrangements, and you're somewhat close to the atmosphere. Rodriguez projected the image of the aloof, alienated folk-rock songwriter, his songs jammed with gentle, stream-of-consciousness, indirect putdowns of straight society and its tensions. Likewise, he had his problems with romance, simultaneously putting down (again gently) women for their hang-ups and intimating that he could get along without them anyway ("I wonder how many times you had sex, and I wonder do you know who'll be next" he chides in the lilting "I Wonder"). At the same time, the songs were catchy and concise, with dabs of inventive backup: a dancing string section here, odd electronic yelps there, tinkling steel drums elsewhere. It's an album whose lyrics are evocative yet hard to get a handle on even after repeated listenings, with song titles like "Hate Street Dialogue," "Inner City Blues" (not the Marvin Gaye tune), and "Crucify Your Mind" representative of his eccentric, slightly troubled mindset. As it goes with folk-rock-psych singer/songwriters possessing captivating non sequitur turns of the phrase, he's just behind Arthur Lee and Skip Spence, but still worth your consideration. ~ Richie Unterberger