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Album Review

Lupen Crook
The Pros and Cons of Eating Out Beast Reality

Article written by Ged M - Oct 18, 2010

Lupen Crook: The Pros and Cons of Eating Out

I like Lupen Crook. He’s intelligent and interesting, determined to oversee everything from his art to the distribution of his music, in best punk DIY fashion. And, if his ambition sometimes overshoots his reach, well then that’s the right way around. But he can be pretentious and misguided, better at writing statements than composing the songs that back them up. Of his third album, he says: “As a songwriter, I have taken myself on a voyage of discovery and misadventure. I have willingly allowed ‘the moment’, and my natural impulse, however frowned upon it may be, to envelop me entirely”.

But he hasn’t rewritten Down and Out in Paris and London; rather it’s angsty rock of the sort that appeals to a 15 year old virgin who gets his vicarious thrills from transgression tales and needs the reassurance of the line in ‘Ode to Fucking Everyone’, “hang on everybody that don’t belong/ it’s gonna be alright”, to be able to sleep at night. It’s Carter USM without the knowing sense of absurdity (does anyone now refer to "The Man", unless ironically?). It can be over-wrought and indulgent, and the Murderbirds often escape into very pedestrian rock. But then there are moments when you glimpse Lupen Crook’s talent; the bacchanalian folk-punk of ‘Pirate’s Wife’ and the delicate and melancholic folk melodies of ‘World’s End’, while ‘Devil’s Son’ is edgy and menacing until it’s bludgeoned to death beneath the rock. And there’s a clever and surprising sample of Charlie Chaplin from the Great Dictator tacked to the beginning of ‘Ode…’ But as a fan of the Clash, Lupen needs to employ his own bullshit detector and realise that flirtation with decadence is a cliché in itself.

Links:
http://www.lupencrook.com
http://www.myspace.com/lupencrook