John Ludi was an indie artist before indie was invented as a genre. Fiercely DIY the Detroit based musician has made zeven albums plus an EP with early demo tracks. His latest and probably last - album is called Mistakes Have Been Made. It's all over the place musically, but it is crystal clear that he is not happy with the current state of affairs in the States. Big business is fucking up the environment and cash grab is considered to be perfectly OK. Stupidity is embraced, no matter the consequences.
Ludi rages, sometimes at the top of his voice, but more often softly and melodic on top of a basic rhythm track, with Goodbye Catbird (The Environmentalist's Love Song) as the prime example of that modus operand:
All this greed, rapacious need.
The way we feed, the world we bleed.
Words we don't heed sew poisoned seeds.
Now watch us beg and plead.
The holes we drill, coffers we fill,
species we kill, lives that we still
The lack of will persists until
It's time to pay the bill.
Mistakes Have Been Made is a piece of serious gnarly art rock with forays into punk and prog that hammers home an urgent message. On a side note: Wild Is the Wind, the sole cover on the album, follows the famous Bowie version of that track. No need to invent a new arrangement when that will do.
Mistakes Have Been Made is a self-released album. Buy it from his website.
Tracks:- Kings (The Depopulation Song)
- The Traveler
- Wild is the Wind
- Everybody Here's Getting Stupider
- Frozen Souls
- Go Along to Get Along
- Goodbye Catbird (The Environmentalist's Love Song)
- This Time
- The Caretaker
- Whisper in the Wind
- Weightless Saint
- Mistakes Have Been Made
- Afterlife
