Michelangelo Dying

高い評価を博しスマッシュヒットを記録した前作から3年半、ケイト・ル・ボンの新作が完成。近年プロデューサーとしても大きく活躍する彼女の7枚目のアルバム『ミケランジェロ・ダイイング』、リリース。
●ゲスト:ジョン・ケイル

純粋な感情に導かれて制作されたCate Le Bonの7枚目のアルバム『Michelangelo Dying』は、彼女が作ろうとしていたアルバムの本質を覆すものとなった。全身を蝕む心痛の産物であるこの作品は、愛についてのアルバムを書くことへの抵抗を彼女の感情が凌駕し、ある種の悪魔祓いへと変貌を遂げたものだ。そこから浮かび上がるのは、癒える前の傷を写真に収めようとする、美しく虹彩に富んだ試みである(しかし、その過程で、傷を掻きむしることにもなる)。ハイドラ、カーディフ、ロンドン、そしてロサンゼルスを行き来しながら制作された『Michelangelo Dying』は、彼女の心の中にアルバムの風景と心痛の多くが存在するカリフォルニアの砂漠で仕上げられたという点が、特筆すべきところだ。そこには、明言されていることと同じくらい、語られていないこと、むしろ不明瞭なことが多い。Le Bonの豊かで深い質感のアレンジは、彼女が言葉を持たず、言葉を見つけようとしなかったときに、何層にも積み重なっていった。音楽的には、Le Bonが演奏とプロデュースの主導権を握るようになった直近2枚のアルバム(2019年の『Reward』と2022年の『Pompeii』)で形づくられたサウンド(心を持った機械)の継続と拡大がある。加えて、John Caleの存在もある。アルバムのプロデュースは、長年のコラボレーターであるSamur Khoujaと共同で手掛けた。

Producer and songwriter Cate Le Bon was already seeking out strange angles when working with the standard guitar-bass-drums arrangements of her earliest material, and her creative voice grew more distinctive as she veered towards murky art rock. Le Bons seventh solo album, Michelangelo Dying, swims deeper into the waters she began exploring on efforts like 2019s Reward and 2022s Pompeii, pulling together a collection of soft-focus sounds to create atmospheres that are troubled but always transfixing. At its most pop, Michelangelo Dying has similarities to the slow-moving funk of mid-period Bowie. "Love Unrehearsed" follows a simple four-on-the-floor drum machine kick, with brittle, effects-drenched guitars and nervous splashes of electronic percussion cutting through the straightforward, melancholic chord progression. Several other songs have a similar alien danceability, like "Mothers of Riches," with its liquid bassline and buried instrumental details, or the sideways pop of "Heaven Is No Feeling." The hazed-over production of these songs gives them the feel of lost Kate Bush home demos or forgotten regional radio hits from an undocumented section of the 80s. While Le Bon created the album in the wake of a devastating break up, heartbreak isnt the main emotion communicated in these songs. Much like any chapter of her discography (especially from Reward forward), Michelangelo Dying feels deeply isolated, like the sonic representation of someone sitting quietly alone with their uncomfortable thoughts. When the pace picks up, as on the busy, excitable arrangement of "Body as a River," there’s a weird juxtaposition of celebratory sounds and alienated perspectives. Once again, Cate Le Bon is making party music for a party no one came to, either because the invites were so cryptically written they never got delivered or because the guests changed their minds upon walking up to the weird scene Le Bon was working on. This plays out almost literally on "Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)?," the albums emotional summit and a mournful plea that sounds like Le Bon all alone and ruminating on an exs birthday from a long, lonely distance. Its not an entirely solitary affair, however. While the albums impenetrable sound and walled-off sentiments suggest Le Bon created and placed every sound herself, there’s co-production from longtime collaborator Samur Khouja as well as help from other familiar players like saxophonist Euan Hinshelwood and percussionist Valentina Magaletti. Experimental music pioneer John Cale sings guest vocals on "Ride," his presence calling into focus some of the similarities between Le Bons work and his own. Michelangelo Dying is dense and mysterious, sometimes in ways that are obtuse to a difficult degree and sometimes exhibiting such vulnerable tenderness that its shocking. It continues the deepening specificity of Le Bons creative personality, with these songs representing the next notch of all of her various and unlikely components gelling into something thats simply hers alone. ~ Fred Thomas

ウェールズ出身のアーティストにとって7枚目のアルバム。ジョン・ケイルなどの助力を得ながら、デッド・カン・ダンスやコクトー・ツインズが脳裏に浮かぶ幻夢的な音を響かせている。AORの香りが漂う"Mothers Of Riches"を筆頭に、キャッチーな旋律を紡げる高い作曲力を楽しめる内容だ。情動の機微を上手く描いた散文詩的な歌詞も聴きどころ。
bounce (C)近藤真弥