Jackie Leven The Haunted Year: Summer (Cooking Vinyl)
2/5
By: Stephen Maughan
The press release that came with this double album was more like a novel. I wish I had time to read the whole thing - it might have made this review easier to do. As it was, I read the first paragraph, then threw it in the bin, and set about trying to make sense of this: two albums of acoustic heartfelt Scottish folk blues which contained some un-released songs, some live tracks, and a few re-recordings of earlier songs. Oh, and how can I forget - a rather tiresome stand up comedy routine in between songs, such as the “amusing” story of his attempts to buy a copy of The Guardian in a right wing Hampshire village. He then does a witty voice of a retired colonel who lives in his village who reads The Daily Telegraph. The crowd laugh. You smile the first time. But by the tenth time you hear this story the crowd still laugh, and you just stare out of the window waiting for the music to start. And when it does, it's a sad tale where Leven sings “everybody has this colour in their life, it's called universal blue. I've got universal blue”. Ok, let’s go back to the comedy... On second thoughts, best to stick to the music. Believe me.
Mr Leven offers us 21 recordings here, as part of his ‘Haunted Year’ theme. Winter and spring have passed, and if you still have the stamina for all these tales of broken dreams and fading hope you will find plenty of that here. But if not, don't worry, Jackie will warm your heart with a funny tale from his long life (“Turn that sh*te off, let's watch a porno” goes one joke).
I was curious to see what others make of this somewhat confusing album, so I did some research. The best I could find was a quote from the, a-hem, Daily Express “Leven has enjoyed cult status for well over 15 years but deserves higher acclaim." Does he deserve higher acclaim for the sheer effort he has put into touring, releasing records, and being brave enough to include his attempts at comedy on this release? (OK, it's not that bad really, but he'll never be Richard Pryor, or Rich Hall even...) Or does he deserve higher acclaim for being, well, good. Well, the jury is out on that one I'm afraid.
The best songwriters grab your attention from the word go, with a deep introspective lyric that then develops into a poetic freefall (Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen), or others that grab your attention from their uniqueness and uncompromising stance (Jim Morrison or Ian Curtis). The truth is Leven will never be in this league: “I see a picture that I like on the restaurant wall, if I only could own the picture my life would be complete...but we pay the bill and I don't even ask... the hotel would never sell it to me...so I walk away...” sighs Leven on the brooding ‘Barefoot Days’ - the closet he gets to the vivid imagery and storytelling style of something like Bob Dylan's ‘Highlands’, yet it never quite gets there.
Still, it's a good effort, and I'm sure this album will go down well among a certain age and perspective. As for me, I'm going to give this to my father-in-law, he'll appreciate the melancholy and the acoustic sound here of a man grown tired and weary of looking across the horizon waiting for the sun to rise.
Artists in this article: Jackie Leven
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