British -- so very British -- singer/songwriter
Philip Jeays' fourth studio album offers little that will surprise seasoned listeners, but also so much that will delight them. Firmly cast as he is within the salubrious triangle that links
Jacques Brel to
Jake Thackeray, then reaches out towards the more contemporary ideals of
Brett Anderson and
Jarvis Cocker,
Jeays is unlikely ever to deliver an album that flies too far from those he has already delivered -- he dwells within the smokiest nightclubs, the seediest cabarets, the most bohemian cellars, and his songs stick sharp pins in each of those conceits.
If the setting is the same, however,
Jeays' brutal wit and wry perception just keep on getting better.
Fame opens with a rumination on the nature of success, but makes it clear that "fame" itself is no guarantee of that. We live, after all, in an age when simply appearing on Reality TV is sufficient to confer Household-Name-status on the most tedious of people. And who could possibly dream of that?
Moods swing crazily between songs. There are moments of absolutely sublime humor, such as "Down At Harry,'s" a drift through the dreams of a young man "on the pull," that visualizes the kind of girls he might be meeting tonight -- then pulls out the most repulsive stereotypes -- an American lass with dyed eyes and padded brain; a French mademoiselle drinking wine by the liter; a buck-toothed English rose, "not so much cold as comatose."
But there are also songs of poignant humanity; the blissfully blasphemous "Oh To Be A God," the darkly romantic "We Can Fly," and, most pertinent of all, "The Soldier," a song that places itself in the soul of a soldier as he breathes his last breath and wonders precisely what he's dying for -- his country? His God? His Aunt Joan? No: "I died just because I died/and you thank me with flowers I cannot smell."
Fame, like its three predecessors, is not an album that sits comfortably on the 2003 new release sheets. Rather, it is one of those timeless discs that you feel you have lived with forever already, and know you'll still be living with years from now. It is
Jeays' best in the same way that his last three were, and will doubtless remain so til the next one arrives. The modern troubadour is more alive than ever. ~ Dave Thompson