ANTHONY: Neu York (Secret Crush, 2004)

JACK? JACQUES? ANTHONY? alter egos, or correct names of the man who pleasantly surprises me with each new album and thrills me with his attitude towards the music and his fans.

You have had chance to read quite a lot about JACK e.g. JACQUES, on this web-zine, and therefore it is time to say something about ANTHONY. By leaving both earlier names from the past behind, after 5 albums and bunch of great singles, Anthony J. Reynolds has decided to introduce himself as a solo artist on his new album with symbolic title Neu York.
However, after firstly listening the album it became perfectly clear that mentioned alter egos from the past did not go away but are only hidden as J., between A. and R., and therefore Neu York may be divided into two parts.
The first part belongs to ANTHONY who woke up this morning happy and joyful, singing the songs, which after first listening become catchy, and after the second listening make you sing along. From the musical perspective this work significantly differs from earlier JACK works, with minimalist music background. Some disco/hi-nrg rhythm is leading us through the song I Love My Radio (on), whereas radio-friendly hit Lush Life,

We're too beautiful to die / while we're too busy living / such a lush life / oh my...

in textual manner comes as extension of the song Emperor of New London from earlier JACK album

I'm so fucking high/ death wouldn't dare interrupt me now…

Somewhere around the middle Anthony is transferring us to more depressed and more closed, acoustic part of the album, beginning with the Good Times through beautiful If July Were A Kingdom, up to the closing night song Drugs Are My Drugs.

For the first time Matthew Scott, Anthony's faithful compaignon through JACK i JACQUES phases is not taking part in this album, but here we find EX JACK members Julian Simmons and violin player Fiona Brice (who also accompany him on his European tour), as well as DIVINE COMEDY members; Bryan Mills and Ivor Talbot. The co-author on Lush Life is French movie composer Franck Roussel, and the album also gives us chance to hear again the legendary Momus.

The only critic one could say with regards to this album is the obvious division of the album on two parts, what makes it a bit difficult somewhere near the end, what might have been avoided with some kind of songs reorganization. Or, was it deliberately made this way?

grade [1-10]: 8

pedja // 08/11/2004

PS: I received this album directly from the author for what I specially want to thank him. The same package discovered three more CD's; compilation Stamp Collecting (for Beginners) of Anthony's new record company Secret Crush, Anthony's limited cd "I was born (In prehistoric Spain)" issued for Moonpalace Records, and recording of the concert held in Spain, on 24th June 2004. But we will have to save this for the next opportunity.