John Cale - Fear

There are two things about John Cale that I know to be absolutely true: 1) He's brilliant and 2) He's weird. Fear presents an astonishing blend of brilliant and weird, which is precisely what I expected.

One of the things I love about this album is the fact that John Cale pulled my two favorite parts out of Roxy Music (Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno) to fill out this album. There is a definite Velvet Underground meets Roxy Music feel to the album, with equal parts something pure John Cale mixed in. The songs range from highly experimental jaunts to almost pure pop (I say almost pure because John Cale doesn't seem content with laying down three minute radio content. He'll throw little spikes into his sweet concoctions just for good measure). All in all this is a very solid listen and highly recommended to fans of Velvet Underground and/or Roxy Music.