John Cale - Fear LP

Label: Proper

Release Date: December 27th, 2024

Released in October 1974, Fear is an incredibly important album in John Cale 50 plus year career. 

This reissue faithfully replicates the original 1974 Island Records UK release and is pressed onto high quality 180 gram vinyl. Fear marked Cale's return to recording in London after the best part of a decade in America. Signing to Island Records, he made fast friends with two key admirers, Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno, who assisted him in returning his music to the rawer sound of his earlier work, as opposed to the lush textures of his previous studio album, Paris 1919. The tense, clipped "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend" harks back to the work of the Velvet Underground, as does the standout, "Gun", eight minutes of overdriven bleakness with Eno dueling with Cale's guitar solo on synthesizers. Much is rightly made of these tracks, but there is also the sweetness of the gospel of "Buffalo Ballet" and the Beach Boys homage "The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy". The pretty, semi-autobiographical "Ship Of Fools" offers listeners an opportunity to hear Cale reference the South Wales city of Swansea, its seaside suburb, Mumbles and his home village of Garnant. In its often-skeletal simplicity, the often triumphant Fear is an album that brought an angular aggression with it.