Customer Reviews

Forever Breathes the Lonely Word

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album figures by most, to be Felt's crowning achievement. It is the second LP released in 1986, after the instrumental Let The Snakes Crinkle Themselves to Death. The lineup features the keyboard playing of Martin Duffy, who fills in for the recently departed second guitarist Maurice Deebank to stunning effect. His whirling & churning organ effects provide an excellent accompaniment to these beautiful, more fully melodied songs, over which Lawrence sings & provides a more understated guitar counterpoint. It is in my opinion Felt's most perfect release.

If you're buying the Felt re-issues, this release is #6. Like the rest, it comes in a thin cardboard jacket with minimal artwork & no liner notes, & which usually include only a single B&W picture of Lawrence on the interior gatefold, although in this instance there are color pictures of Lawrence & Duffy. As an overall effect, I like what they have done with the packaging, although I tend to prefer the uniformity of a standard Jewel case for releases which I collect. Forever Breathes The Lonely Word is a great place to start. It is Felt's The Queen Is Dead.

Even though musically i prefer Felt's first albums, they rock more and are more psychadelic but this one has reached Pop Olympus, a kind of Eden only Smiths and other few bands had reached. I think this was the album Lawrence always searched for, the lyrics are among his best and the guitars (with a little help of Tony Willé) too. And I say that even tough there is a really strong hammon Martin Duffy presence, the spicy pop hammond that made Felt went away from 77 Television to somewhere in 66.

Swirling, dizzying, shimmering: words used repeatedly when describing the music of Felt or their likeminded contemporaries. But few albums are as deserving of these descriptors as this. First, some background: after lead guitarist Maurice Deebank's acrimonious departure, Felt's future seemed uncertain given Deebank's crucial role in their sound (with his detailed, highly melodic playing). Interesting but relatively insubstantial releases following Deebank's departure, like the all instrumental "Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death," confounded this. Rather than find another guitarist, singer/guitarist Lawrence Heyward replaced Deebank by casting recent recruit Martin Duffy's deft Hammond organ playing in the lead light.

"Forever Breathes" is an extremely unified, cohesive, concise pop vision, with nary a dud to be found. The arrangements vary little from song to song, yet each song stands out with its own mood, ranging from lush and pastoral (the gorgeous, haunting "September Lady") to manic and surging ("Grey Streets"). Shimmering, clear, jewel-like guitars meld with rich, Hammond organ, all soaked in reverb, forming a dizzying, swirling sonic mesh. Yup, those words really are unavoidable here. The abundant melodies are elegant yet somewhat understated. Although there are shades of the 60s (specifically, Blonde on Blonde-era Dylan filtered through Pet Sounds' reverb chamber), the sound is still very much Felt's. Producer John A. Rivers gives them a brighter sound than on the darker, more brooding earlier efforts he produced. It's still drenched in atmosphere, but rather than make you feel like you're under water, it's more like sailing atop dense clusters of wind-strewn clouds.

This is Felt's strongest post-Deebank, Creation-era recording, and it best represents what Felt was about in the later half of their career. Felt's Cherry Red years tend to be more consistently rewarding, but this is one of *the* albums to shoot for first if you're new to the band.

This album is truly a gem. Felt sounds somewhat like Bob Dylan singing lead vocals for the Smiths. Mono-tone, almost spoken voice on top of melodic, beautifully twangy guitars, smart arrangements rounded out with a happy organ and poetic lyrics. The highlight of Felt's career came when they partnered with the Cocteau Twins to produce the gothic, lush "Primitive Painters" from the Ignite the Seven Cannons album. Although they were extremely prolific and had as much eloquence as Joy Division, they never fully caught on....forever lost in the 80's underground. Forever Breathes The Lonely Word, in my opinion, was their greatest and most accessible work.

One of the most perfect records ever made! The fact that this is obscure and unknown says something very negative about the music business and the current state of music.