Ivan Julian remains probably best known for his work on the first, iconic Richard Hell & The Voidoids album, Blank Generation<\/i>. With co-guitarist Robert Quine, future Ramone Marc Bell on drums, and the bass, vocals, poeticism, and safety-pinned clothing of Richard Hell, the band was instrumental in helping to create a blueprint for punk that persists to this day. This was CBGB at Year Zero, and the jaded pouts crossed with whip-smart intellect and a bit (or a lot) of self-harm remain an irresistible combination for many musicians some 56-plus (?!) years later.<\/p>\n
None of the posturing would matter if the music wasn\u2019t great, and it certainly was (and is). A large part of the Voidoids magic was the twin guitars of Quine and Julian, which were spiky, angular, and more jarring\/less liquid than Television, but having no less of a conversation. So it\u2019s pretty great to hear that signature sound return right out of the box on \u201cCut Me Loose,\u201d the first song on Ivan Julian\u2019s new solo album Swing Your Lanterns<\/i>. Gritty, jagged, soulful, and with a voice that, dare I say, has some similarities to Richard Hell, it\u2019s immediately clear that Julian is still the real downtown NYC deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t Help Myself\u201d and \u201cWild\u201d continue in a similar vintage Bowery vein. Julian has surrounded himself with a number of very sympathetic musicians, and while the configurations vary considerably from song to song, it all sounds of a piece. Julian is playing and singing his heart out, exhibiting the kind of hard-won honesty and conviction that comes from having lived life on one\u2019s own terms, as well as surviving a 2016 cancer diagnosis and 2019 recurrence.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell Me Lies,\u201d an acoustic lament about love growing cold, downshifts, adding some melancholy to the proceedings. \u201cLove Is Good\u201d keeps things slow with a bit of a soul inflection. While at first I thought the sentiment a bit\u2026 I don\u2019t know, obvious, there are some barbs in these lyrics and I have to admit that the song has grown on me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Am Not A Drone (Alone)\u201d changes things up a bit with a more rhythmic, acoustic base that shifts into a charging electric chorus, the lyrics referring to \u201cdrone\u201d in both its cultural and military senses. The title track incorporates a touch of funk and is perhaps the philosophical centerpiece of the album. \u201cSwing your lanterns low\u2026 don\u2019t you know which way to go?\u201d ask the lyrics, a nod to uncertain times.<\/p>\n
The acoustic \u201cCazalla\u201d is another wistful ballad, sounding not unlike something that might\u2019ve appeared on the second Voidoids album, 1982\u2019s Destiny Street<\/i>, which, ironically, Julian didn\u2019t play on. Here, as throughout the album, it\u2019s clear Julian\u2019s guitar chops are fully intact, and his playing is sharp and tasteful. \u201cVoodoo Christmas\u201d offers an unsettling, slinky reflection on what sounds to have been a holiday marked by the inevitable end a relationship. In fact, much of the album seems to chart the painful dissolution of a love affair as summarized in the final track entitled\u2026 um, \u201cLove Affair.\u201d It\u2019s yet another bit of prime NYC grit, sounding a little like something the Only Ones\u2019 Peter Perrett might\u2019ve written, as well. It\u2019s a great tune, and perhaps my favorite of the record. <\/p>\n
The songs on Swing Your Lanterns<\/i> are concise and the record itself clocks in at just over 37 minutes. In these days of hour-plus albums, this brevity only increases the impact of each song, leaving you wanting a bit more, which is a trick that more musicians might want to remember. <\/p>\n
Julian has been a member of The Fauntleroys with Alejandro Escovedo, guitarist Nicholas Tremulis (also appearing on Swing Your Lanterns<\/i>), and drummer Linda Pitmon, and appeared on The Clash\u2019s Sandinista<\/i> (he added guitar on \u201cThe Call Up\u201d). He\u2019s also played in Shriekback and spent much of the \u201990s in Matthew Sweet\u2019s band. In 2009, he released his first solo album, backed by Argentinian garage-rockers Capsula. That makes Swing Your Lanterns<\/i> just the second solo outing over a very long career, and the first in 14 years.<\/p>\n
With Bob Quine having passed in 2004, and following the recent death of Tom Verlaine\u2014not to mention Julian\u2019s own battles with mortality\u2014there\u2019s no time to waste in appreciating those who laid the foundations of so much music so many love. With Swing Your Lanterns<\/i> Ivan Julian makes that easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":34717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10830],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46573","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ivan-julian","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46573"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46573"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}