Review Summary: Life is hard, yes i know
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an upcoming train.
No one is a better example of this than the enigmatic, eclectic, John Martyn, who was in the process of marital troubles and struggeling with addiction during the process of making this albim. His story is an example of how a man can reach rock bottom and still dig himself further down into the darkness, but there is music, thus there is also light.
Embracing the hurt and pain is essential to heal and to move on, but Martyn embodied every aspect of those thigns, which led him on a seemengly endless downward spiral of what his friends and peers described as total self-destruction.
This may all seem like rambling or irrelevant, as his troublesome life, rocky love life and self sabotage may all sound like something more appropriate for a tabloid or gossip column than a review, but in music and art, all is relevant. Being a trainwreck also culiminated in him making one of the best folk records in the late 70s.
To be more specific, i am talking about «One World». This album can be described as Martyn finding musical balance by achieving the perfect blend of his two previous albums; the more folk oriented «Sunday`s Child», the improv laden and experimental «Inside Out». This is the sound of a muscician who has both learned from his past mistakes and strenghts.
Now lets go on to the music on this record. It divided into two distinct parts, With side one compromising mostly of what i would call experimental rock that leans towards prog, with heavy drums, Moog synths and massive overdubs of flutes and bass.
Side two on the other hand, which is my favorite part of the record, is filled with sad love songs and finds Martyn going more for his traditional folk sound, but at the same time throwing in inspirations and influences to give the songs more flavor to them.
The tracklist varies for this record, but this is the order in which I listened to it on my vinyl copy of it:
Side one begins with the song «Dealer» a track that is dense with reverb, funky drums, a reaggae like riff and some prog elements as mentioned before. He starts off with the lyrics:
«Well, I cannot be your lover.. And i will not be your friend,
Well, I know you say you need me but I have no time to spend»
His vocal delivery is very distninct, and along with his excellent guitar work it is one of his absolute strenghts. It is said he obtained his style through trying to use his voice to emulate various sounds and elements he heard in jazz music. His voice can maybe be offputting at start for some, but no one can deny that he pulls it off.
Next one is the title track, «One World», where he lets his voice take centre on top of mellow guitar playing, that could be compared to the style of Gilmoure and ambient synths. David Gilmour did in fact play this song live with John Martyn at least in one occasion, and the Pink Floyd influence is noticable to some degree here too. Lyrically he adressed how isolated he feels when realizing that there is just «one world», which he finds cold and lonely.
«Smiling Stranger» is yet another richly textured song, with lots of multitracking and complex guitar work. This is one of the weaker cuts off the album in my opinion. And that says a lot because this song is actually pretty solid. Its lyrics is kinda self explanatory and deals with distrust and being weary of strangers.
«Life is hard,
Yes I know
But it is harder still
Loving a smiling stranger»
On to the last song of side one; «Bg Muff». This is probably among his most legendary and best known songs. It is because of this very song he has been hailed by many as the godfather of trip hop. Interestingly, later in his career he would go on to cover «Glory Box» by Portishead, who are regarded as among the best within the trip hop genre. Another fascinating aspect of this song is its origins. He took a break from music and went to Jamaica, where he drew inspiration from their reggae and funk music. This could be heard to some extent on the earlier cuts on this album, but it is here it is most apparent. This is also a song where he incorporated fuzz to his acoustic guitar. This is song is just an absolute blast and i highly recommend it. It works great outside of the context of the album too.
With side one ending on such a high note, side two almost immediatly exceeds it by topping it with its opener «Couldnt Love You More». This song shines with beautiful strumming from acoustic guitar , soaring bass lines and organ performed by no other than Steve Winwood. On this song Martyn truly wears his heart on his sleeve and his vocal delivery is nothing short of amazing. This is clearly A plea to his soon to be divorced wife, Beverly, and easily one of the best songs on the album.
«If you kissed the sun right out of the sky for me
And if you told me all the lies that i deserve
If you laid all night in the rain for me
I couldnt love you more»
This dark song is followed by the more optimistic and playful «Certain Surprise», where Martyn continues doing his thing on the acoustic guitar, obviously drawing inspiration from latin music and bossa nova. He seems more hopeful in regards of his love life here compared to the previous song.
«We're too sensitive, my dear two fugitives from fear and so
With a certain surprise, give you my sweet certain surprise
Silence has never been my thing
I'm one of those, I love to shout and sing about my love
Sweet flying dove, there's no one above, sweet certain surprise»
Continuing in the vein of the upbeat mood as heard in the previous song, «Dancing» deals with Martyn presumably trying to make Beverly be more understanding of his lifestyle. With electric guitars and A rhytm that almost begs to be danced to, and Martyns words does just that.
« Oh darling, I want you to try to understand
If you're leading the life of a music man
You've got to walk around and reel around
And rock around the whole round town»
The next one is the big finale to the album, and what A way to an end a great album. «Small Hours» is in my opinion one the best songs Martyn has ever made and arguably the most beautiful too. Winwood is also featured on this track, which is over 8 minutes long and brooding with ambiance from effect such as reverb and echo. This is not just achieved by pedals, you see, this song was recorded outside, late at night by the studio. If you close your eyes when listening to this you can just picture the beauty of it. Natural reverberation, echo and even sounds from nearby animals such as geese can be heard. Lyrically this song breaks down what the whole album has really been about
: Love, and being a person who has a hard time both living with and without it. Being hurt, and at the same time trying to heal, but being uable to for some reason.
«Well you're very very lovely, gonna take you home
They say you'll be my ruin, but I just don't care
'Cause I love you so
I just love you so
Keep on loving 'til your love is gone
Keep on loving while your love is strong
All the way»
This album is an experience, and the order of the tracklist as used here is how you should hear it. Like David Bowies «Low» its tracklist divided in two perfect seperate halves, that makes up to a perfect package, which shouldnt be tampered with. «Small Hours» is up there with my favorite album closers of all time and there are so many great songs on this that the whole album is almost only stand out tracks. If this is an album you havent heard i urge you strongly to check it out. It has something for everyone. From the first half of the album with its experimental rockers and to the second half with its astonishing experimental folk drenched beauty. With Martyn, the hurt and the act of trying to heal from it seemed to be an impossible feat-But him trying to succeed both privately and proffesionally sure made up for one hell of a listening experience. If this album doesnt make you feel, then i dont know what is wrong With you!
5/5
Recommended tracks: Big Muff, Couldnt Love You More, Certain Surprise, Dancing, Small Hours.
