Released two years after
Cast's
Beetroot,
John Power's solo debut hit the shelves with little fanfare and a virtually nonexistent marketing push. One can't really blame Eagle Records or
Power's press agent for releasing the album via under-the-radar techniques.
Cast were never critical darlings and were labeled unfairly as unfashionable and mediocre more often than not. But fans who'd followed
Power from
the La's or discovered him via
Cast were thought fervent enough to find
Happening for Love by word of mouth.
Power has a couple of things going for him off the bat: legendary producer
John Leckie mans the boards, infusing instant credibility;
Power's charm and passion are addictive; and he's never wavered in the past from his nostalgic Merseybeat. While
Leckie's stripped-down production gives the album a you-are-in-the-studio immediacy, the lo-fi '60s realism of
the La's is not the goal. Instead, the focus is on
Power's passionate, urgent voice and his chugging, bouncy acoustic guitar. At times, strangely,
Power sounds like a dead ringer for
Jazz Singer-era
Neil Diamond, as he struggles somewhat valiantly to convey political and humanitarian messages that would seem naïve even coming from an adolescent. There's an undeniable awkwardness to most of
Power's lyrical conceits. It's an awkwardness that pokes holes in the album that no amount of charm can patch, and there's also a problem whenever
Power attempts to cram too many words and syllables to match the music. For every beat of nearly every song,
Power sings as if his voice is a stomping foot or a metronome. The title song is the worst offender;
Power offers some of the most dreadfully pretentious lyrics imaginable, in an attempt at social commentary. Cringe-worthy lines like "do you think the wars that we wage with such velocity across our lands have anything to do with the words that are written by the prophets of man" see
Power clearly as no equal to
Phil Ochs, let alone
Billy Bragg.
Power is better suited to pop flare-ups like the opening track, "Electrify," which sounds like a demo for a
Cast song. Almost without fail, these songs hit snags where
Power meanders aimlessly, or where choruses seem completely unrelated to the songs in which they reside.
Power slows his strumming on "Small Farm" and "Island," but these ballad-like passages suffer from a lack of vocal range that was covered on
Cast albums by strings and other musical flourishes.
Happening for Love does manage to get by on charm alone, thanks to a few delightfully jaunty moments, but it's hard to shake the feeling that its songs could be demos from an unreleased
Cast album. Newcomers really need not apply; this one's for
Cast fanatics only. ~ Tim DiGravina