One For The Weekend: John Cale

John Cale's new album POPtical Illusion is out June 14th. Check out Abigail Portner's nutty video for "Shark-Shark" below.

Here's the scoop...

John Cale just released a new single/video for “Shark-Shark” off his new album, POPtical Illusion, out June 14th via Domino. Following lead single “How We See The Light,” “Shark-Shark” is a slightly menacing, yet wholly delightful, heavy dance jam. Various versions of Cale’s voice cut under and across a throbbing industrial beat made rich with punchy drum machines, before ending with a scabrous guitar solo as mean as something Cale might have made in the inchoate days of punk. The video sees Cale collaborating once again with director Abigail Portner.

“Sometimes you write a song purely for a mood,” Cale explains. “‘Shark-Shark’ has two versions - both a nod to finding humour in music. When you’re feeling too much of the real world, the best diversion is something that puts a grin on your face. I don’t know how Abby & team kept this shoot together - being ‘unserious’ was a lot of fun!”

On the video, Portner states “When I first heard this song the first thing that struck me was this vibe of gentle chaos, a chaos that's not dangerous but a playfulness that happens at a sleepover party or in an 80s comedy. I was in Oslo last summer with John and I had taken a bunch of pictures of the band in the National Museum standing in the hall of busts, looking very stark and cold. This idea popped into my head of what if the chaos in this song was sculptures coming to life and breaking all the rules! The concept of taking something like the National Museum or Swan Lake and having the art itself turn it upside down seemed fitting for this song.” Watch The Video For John Cale’s “Shark-Shark” below. 

 

 Despite the playful title, POPtical Illusion, Cale’s second album in just over a year still contains the same feelings of fierce and inquisitive rage that were present in last year’s much-lauded MERCY. He remains angry, still incensed by the willful destruction that unchecked capitalists and unrepentant con-men have hoisted upon the wonders of this world and the goodness of its people. In a period of a little over a year, Cale wrote more than 80 songs collectively surveying the range of human experience, and in the process—humor bled into frustration, regret gave way to forgiveness, sadness tangled with surrealism. POPtical Illusion synthesizes those emotions and enthusiasms into a dozen electronic playgrounds, Cale’s magisterial voice webbing across it all with puns and insights, grievances and quips, and some version of truth.

As throughout his career of more than six decades, Cale has never been much for repetition. His vanguard-shaping enthusiasms have shifted among ecstatic classicism and unbound rock, classic songcraft and electronic reimagination with proud restlessness. And so, on POPtical Illusion, he foregoes the illustrious cast to burrow mostly alone into mazes of synthesizers and samples, organs and pianos, with words that, as far as Cale goes, constitute a sort of swirling hope, a sage insistence that change is yet possible. Produced by Cale and longtime artistic partner Nita Scott in his Los Angeles studio, POPtical Illusion is the work of someone trying to turn toward the future – exactly as Cale always has.

POPtical Illusion will be available on 2xLP, CD, and digitally. The Domino Mart pink & mint vinyl 2xLP edition pressing of 1000 includes a 7" featuring 2 exclusive tracks, and a POPitem – a limited edition illusionary twirling paper Objet. You can pre-order the double LP right here. Check out the "Shark-Shark" video below.