New Pere Ubu Album
- Written by Marky Edison
The new album by Pere Ubu, The Long Goodbye is the end of a road. David Thomas has been talking about Pere Ubu’s journey on the road to Satisfied City for many years but he has now declared that they have arrived. Named after Raymond Chandler’s novel, Mr Thomas says, ‘This wraps up every song and story that Pere Ubu has been telling in different ways for the past forty plus years. It is one definitive hour that provides the answers to the questions we’ve been asking and delivers it up into what I consider the definitive destination.”
This Pere Ubu album does not sound like any of the others. It has a large expanse of synths due to Thomas writing and arranging the songs alone with his private collection of drum machines, synthesizers and a melodeon, before sending it out to the other musicians in Pere Ubu’s extensive fold, with invitation for them to take it on and make it more.
Gagarin and Wheeler took up the challenge and embedded complex electronica into the multi-faceted landscape. Peter Jørgens’ outré percussion adds a tribal dimension, while guitarists Moliné and Temple, along with clarinetist, Darryl Boon, complete this unique fusion of techno meets trad rock meets… the avant garage.
‘I’d been listening to commercial pop radio non-stop for months,’ David Thomas says. ‘That’s what I wanted to rewrite and reimagine. Pop music shouldn’t be without meaning or truthfulness. We live in desperate towns and we keep on going regardless of the stench. It’s not often you’re gonna find the answers. If ever. But here is pop music the way it should sound.’
Track Listing:
01 What I Heard On The Pop Radio
02 Marlowe
03 Flicking Cigarettes At The Sun
04 Road Is A Preacher
05 Who Stole The Signpost?
06 The World (As We Can Know It)
07 Fortunate Son
08 The Road Ahead
09 Skidrow-on-Sea
10 Lovely Day
