Adam Irving never makes the same album twice. After the pop-rock record Tomorrow & Tomorrow and the piano-driven Baby Rhino, he now sets sail for a trip of fast-paced spoken word wrapped in minimal flourishes. Bespoken is a dense listening experience. His speed-story telling will require to repeated plays to make out all the words. Early buyers of the CD are in luck, because the first 500 come with a stapled zine with all the lyrics, but they will have some trouble with figuring out Never Repeat It that been typeset in a circle.
Irving used to distribute his books of poetry and short stories for free, calling it droplifting, inserting his works in newspapers and magazines. With this album he circles back to those days, foregoing rhymes, but letting the flow of his words to do the talking - DIY avant-garde celebrating the voice as the vessel for his music, while he talks about Sleater-Kinney and Friends in Days & Days, and walnuts to would require Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer to crack in A Different Way. Where will he go next? Changes are that he doesn't know yet himself, but it will be interesting again for sure.
Bespoken is a self-released album (CD, digital). Buy it from his website. Te first 500 copies of the CD come with a 16 page Zine containing all the lyrics.
Tracks:- The Beginning
- Thoughts From Long Ago
- How It Was
- Days & Days
- Never Repeat It
- A Different Way
- Train Vignette
- What Was It Like?
- Have We Forgotten?
- Tickertape
» Adam Irving on Bandcamp
HCTF review of Baby Rhino.