Customer Reviews

The Island Years

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This is a fantastic box set that collects most of John Cale's output during his stay with Island Records. The Three albums featured- Fear, Slow Dazzle, and Helen of Troy are all among his best work and ranks with anything that came out of the art rock genre during the 70's. He maintained an edgy approach that had made VU such a bombastic band in their first two albums but he also showed a great talent for melodies that had first come out in Vintage Violence and further progressed in Paris 1919.
Fear (1974), the first album cover is my personal favorite. He's got a pretty good musicians backing him up in the likes of Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera Brian Eno, and Andy MacKay, Archie Leggatt (who did some Kevin Ayers albums) and even Richard Thompson shows up to play slide guitar on one song. The songs jump from highs to lows in the most extreme way making Fear a very strange listen. The opening track, Fear is a Man's best Friend- jumps and jiggles in a paranoid sort of way only to fall intirely apart to move into the wistful and breezy Buffalo Ballet. There is no steady direction which I think was the purpose of the theme, and the album just seems to continue in that vein.
Next album is Slow Dazzle (1975) which retains many of the same musicians but adding on ace gutiarist Chris Spedding to the mix. Mr Wilson the first song on the album is a sublime homage to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys )it's amazing how well he captured the late 60's sound of the beach boys without totally ripping the sound off). Another really daring song of this album is the completely freekish version of Heartbreak Hotel- it sounds like a lovers triangle gone horribly wrong- both in the way the melody is totally angulated and Cale's raunchy vocal approach.
aND finally there's Helen of Troy, which actually works as a pretty good summation of Cale's pop career from Vintage Violence to H.o.T. He kept Eno on for the third strait album with Phil Collins coming in on drums (Of Genesis and Brand X fame) and Chris Spedding taking over full time on guitar. You've got the raunchy rockn'roll of the title track, orchestrated beauty of "I keep a close watch" and a stunning cover of Pablo Picasso (he truely was an a**hole).
There are some great singles in this box set not available on the individual albums like Coral Moon and Sylvia Says. Too bad Island records decided to discontinue this box set, although I don't think it's to hard to find used somewhere on this vast internet.
This music is everything you could ever imagine a man classically trained, with a sneering attitude towards anything nice and sugary but with a heart of gold could express with great art/pop music. Too bad Island records decided to discontinue this box set, although I don't think it's too hard to find used somewhere on this vast internet. Highly recommended

This set comprises of three complete albums, all released during John Cale's tenure on Island Records-- "Fear", "Slow Dazzle", and "Helen of Troy". Together, these three contain some of Cale's best and most well-loved works, and while the efforts are mostly uneven in spots, having everything in one spot emphasizes just how good the material is. The set also includes one b-side, three unreleased songs, and the song that was substituted for the controversial "Leaving It Up to You", "Coral Moon", when "Helen of Troy" was pressed. ALl the material features Brian Eno, and the first two albums have Phil Manzanera on guitar (he's later replaced by Chris Spedding). I'll discuss the albums a bit first, although I've reviewed each separately and more details are available there.

After producing a series of varied albums in moods and success, John Cale finally hit his stride with what is generally considered his best (at least of the Island period), 1974's "Fear". The album's most well known tracks-- the opener, "Fear is a Man's Best Friend", and "Gun", are somewhat paranoid exercises. The former features some chamber-esque piano, a loping bassline, and a manic reading of its title over a growling bass as a coda, the latter, a straightahead rock tune is famous for its dual solo-- Manzanera's guitar was run through Eno's synthesizers and somehow the two produced something magical. In contrast with this, there's "Buffalo Ballet", a pained, almost lazy-feeling ballad that lives on a razor-edge of tension. The rest of the material is decent as well, including a bizarre rocker ("Barracuda"), is a good enough bizarre rock song, a few pop songs and ballads ("Emily", "Ship of Fools", "You Know More Than I Know". But there's also some less than stellar material ("The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy", "Momamma Scuba") that are extraneous and not particularly exciting.

My favorite of Cale's Island years is "Slow Dazzle"-- it doesn't quite have the heights of "Fear", but it doesn't have as much of the fluff that album has either-- it does, however, have "Heartbreak Hotel". Likely to horrify Elvis fans, this is often cited as the original goth songs-- heavy, distorted guitars, wailing keyboards, and a hissed and screamed vocal set the mood of paranoia and haunting illustrated so well regardless of style-- almost glam, explosive rock ("Dirty Ass Rock 'n' Roll", "Guts"), songs of loss ("Taking It All Away", "Darling I Need You"), even in a simple little ballad ("I'm Not the Loving Kind"). Leaving behind one goofy pop song ("Ski Patrol") that doesn't do so well and the bizarre spoken word piece that I still can't make my mind on whether it works or not ("The Jeweller"), this one is superb.

Finally there's "Helen of Troy", in my assessment the weakest of the three. Its largely an experimental record in terms of moodand style, but I fear it doesn't succeed as well as you'd like. There are some stunningly brilliant moments-- some nice ballads (the overblown "I Keep a Close Watch", and the guitar churning "My Maria" with its almost operatic harmonies), a brilliant cover ("Pablo Picasso"), and one of the most disturbing pieces ever recorded-- "Leaving It Up To You". A tale of doom and horror, Cale whimpers, spits, wails and screams his way through this one-- this was deemed so disturbing the label yanked it from the album and replaced it with the gentle (and dull) "Coral Moon". The album after these though is kind of weak, filled with decent songs that just can't rise up enough to be noticed ("Helen of Troy", "Engine", "Save Us"< "Cable Hogue").

The bonus tracks are interesting-- "Sylvia Said" is a great little ballad, "All I Want Is You" is brilliant pop, although the rest is largely forgettable, including the dull "Coral Moon".

Still, this set is a great value and is highly recommended as it contains much essential John Cale material.

On these landmark mid-70's albums, John Cale expertly blends his classical training with his anarchic protopunk tendencies. He achieves this with aplomb and grace.

His history is fairly well known, so I won't go into great detail. The native Welshman won the Leonard Bernstein scholarship to study music, with the help of composer Aaron Copland. In New York he fell in with the LaMonte Young crowd of avant-jazz noise and dissonance-makers, recording with them as the Dream Syndicate. He then co-founded the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, and stayed for their first 2 albums before leaving to pursue a solo career.

That career began with 1970's "Vintage Violence", and culminated with the brilliant "Paris 1919", on which he wrote and sang stately, elegant pop with members of Little Feat and others. "Paris 1919" is widely acclaimed to this day, and Cale continues to perform songs from it in concert. It was his first "masterpiece", if you'll allow me to use that over-used word from time to time.

He then signed with the Island record label, and released these 3 albums that are collected in their entirety with bonus tracks on this 2-CD set. I believe they are the pinnacle of his career. Guest musicians include Phil Manzanera and Eno of Roxy Music, guitar "gun for hire" session ace Chris Spedding, and Phil Collins. Manzanera is on fire throughout, and no one's ever gotten better work out of Spedding. These are rock records through and through. Of these, "Fear" and "Slow Dazzle" are perfect, "Helen Of Troy" a little less so (there's a few duff tracks not quite up to his standards).

I reiterate - there's 2 John Cale's - the one that plays almost classical piano and beguiles us with his perfect elocution on stately ballads, and the one that bangs out dischord and screams. In concert, you never knew which Cale you were going to get. Both Cale's show up on these records, and I'll say this for him - he's the best screamer in rock. And his ballads are gorgeous.

His output after these is of varying quality. I highly recommend "Walking On Locusts" and "HoboSapiens", which are every bit as good as his Island releases. If you can find his CD "Fragments Of A Rainy Season", it provides a good overview of his career from a solo "man and his piano" perspective without other accompaniment. The 2-disc compilation "Seducing Down The Door" spans many years and is worthwhile.

I can't conclude without mentioning his fruitive career as a producer. Cale produced the debut albums of the Stooges, Patti Smith, Squeeze, and the Modern Lovers - and arranged and produced all of Nico's best albums. I also want to mention that this collection goes well with Kevin Ayers' "The Island Albums", which collects together the 3 great albums Ayers recorded for Island.

This is an amazing collection of John Cale's most commercial and powerful pop music. The three Island albums, "Fear", "Slow Dazzle", and the slightly less realized "Helen Of Troy" are here in glorious sound and completeness. Also included area handful of unreleased tracks (quite honestly, the least interesting here), as well as three odds & sods tracks of note;

"Sylvia Said", the B side of Cale's only Island single "The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy" (included on the "Fear" album). I have the very rare single issue, and, unfortunately, the decision was made to completely remix it. I MUCH prefer the single mix.

"Coral Moon", a wistful song that replaced the more outragious "Leaving It Up To You" on all but the initial pressings of "Helen Of Troy", and,

"Mary Lou", a wild rocker that was the only previously unreleased cut from the 1976 "Guts" compilation album.

For anyone who treasures Eno, Roxy Music, Lou Reed, David Bowie or Mott The Hoople in the 1970's, this is essential listening.

This has been deleted in the US (why?? ....only the shadow knows), but run and get this import before it too disappears.

Although the Velvet Underground lost something tremendous when John Cale left the band in 1968, Cale's solo work has been somewhat spotty. However, he hit his stride when he joined Island Records in the mid 1970's, as this 2 CD set demonstrates. This generous set includes the whole of the albums "Fear", "Slow Dazzle" and "Helen of Troy", as well as a few extra tracks. Standouts include "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend" and Jonathan Richman's "Pablo Picasso". Also great is Phil Manzanera's guitar playing which ranges from wild ("Gun", manipulated by Brian Eno) to elegantly understated ("The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy", featuring Judy Nylon's breathily horny asides). Slight complaint: things drag a bit on the second disk. Listen for Richard Thompson playing on "Momamma Scuba".

This brilliant collection contains John Cale's most accessible work, including some his most melodic songs like The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy, Mr Wilson (tribute to Brian W), Ski Patrol (which reminds me of the John Berryman poem, "Song Of The Tortured Girl"), I Keep A Close Watch, Leaving It Up To You, Coral Moon, and also his most menacing: Fear, Gun, Guts, Heartbreak Hotel and the power trio of Dirty-ass Rock 'n Roll, Darling I Need You and Rollaroll, the high point of the "Slow Dazzle" album.

Of course, Cale is my favourite musician of all time and I'm saying this from the perspective of a mainstream rock fan. I also love his more experimental work, including his collaborations with Brian Eno, Bob Neuwirth and Lou Reed, and of course his earlier stuff like Paris 1919. One can see how artists like Patti Smith and others were influenced by Cale's vision.

So, not only is this the best entry point for those wishing to investigate the work of this genius, it is also handy to have those three seminal Island albums together in one place. For completists, I also recommend his anthology Seducing Down the Door: A Collection 1970-1990 with the warning that it only contains Dirty-Ass Rock 'n Roll without the other two of the "power trio" mentioned above.

"The Island Years" is the essential John Cale collection. For me, this gathering of the trilogy of albums he recorded while at Island Records shows the former Velvet Underground co-founder and multi-instrumentalist at his very best and I believe most accessible. I don't really enjoy anything he's done as a solo artist before or after the Island era but I'm like that with many artists- a personal quirk.

"Fear" is the first and my absolute favorite of the trilogy- the most melodically and lyrically consistent of the bunch. It's got a certain indescribable album-length vibe that's missing on the others. The first track "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend" begins as pleasant pop and builds to a glorious hysteria. "Fear" is followed by the soft, beautiful ballad (and strangely titled) "Buffalo Ballet" which in turn is followed by dark rocker "Barracuda" which gives us a nice taste of the bitter/sweet dissonant/melodic nature of Cale's musical musings. The bass and piano-based "Emily" which features nice oceanic synthesizer washes by Brian Eno is one of his best in the beautiful and tender category. "Ship of Fools" is another dreamy gem. We are then assaulted by the raucous, humorous dirty rock of "Gun", another delightful Velvets reference/homage. "Momamma Scuba" is the slinky rocker that closes "Fear".

Cale's second Island album is "Slow Dazzle". Though not as immediately compelling on the whole as "Fear", it took a bit of time to grow on me so the title is apt. Highlights include the Beach Boys homage "Mr. Wilson"; the funky call-and-response of "Dirty Ass Rock `N' Roll"; the fantastic, psychotic-more-than-haunting cover of "Heartbreak Hotel"; the melancholy ballad "I'm Not The Loving Kind"; and the horror show rock of "Guts" (a sister song of "Gun"), a humorously macabre anthem featuring another Cale vocal freak-out at the close of the song. "Dazzle" ends with an obvious homage to the Velvets, a spoken word piece about an eye's strange transformation into a...well, experience it for yourself- "The Jeweller" which recalls "The Gift".

Lastly, there's "Helen of Troy". My favorite songs here include the opening number "My Maria" featuring some nice dissonance; the very weird title track featuring a lisping rap by `Helen' herself; the Beach Boys-flavored "China Sea"; "Engine", which nicely builds from piano-led ballad to crazed rocker; the stately, symphonic "I Keep A Close Watch" and his perfect rendition of Jonathan Richman's classic "Pablo Picasso". "Helen of Troy" closes with the Gothic slow rocker "Sudden Death". With the exception of "Sylvia Said", I'd say that the included previously unreleased bonus tracks are only for the Cale completist.
At Amazon's price of [...] this set is a steal and worth checking out before it goes out of print. Though Cale would go on to record some fairly decent though inconsistent albums (I'm thinking of the live "Sabotage" and more recent "Hobo Sapiens"), none could touch the passion, humor and inspired mania of the Island Records trilogy.

The mythic proportions the Velvet Underground achieved resonates for all time..this co-founder John Cale deserves a lot of credit since he too stands as a giant on his own right as these 3 solo albums comprised on 2 discs made clear.
A musicians musician, a self-styled iconoclast, avant-garde imagery throughout,,Cale is not typical nor are his diverse styles of musicianship anything but classifiable...
The wonderful use of the electric viola in a rock and roll setting remains a unique staple of his soundscape, his guitar and keyboard playing,steeped in Classicisim and gorgeous touches of bittersweet harmonies remain despite the use of his voice as an instrument of utter emotion with all the screams and snarls..total sensitivity with a passion for Elvis the Beach Boys and everyone else from this Welshman trained classical prodigy.
These 3 Lps/2 Cd's are Cale's entire Island records studio output from 1974 and 1975, a time I used to see him at CBGB's New Year's eve in utter disbelief..after the Velvets and his Paris 1919 album.
The albums contained within.. Fear,Slow Dazzle and Helen Of Troy are all extraordinary with Roxy Music luminaries and Eno throughout, added are the additional bonus tracks,remixes and wonderful black and white booklet offering a fine history.

This 2 CD set containing the complete John Cale Island Records releases; together with a handful of great bonus tracks, is really a bargain.

His three Island albums are all classics, each containing several Cale Classics. To mention just a few tracks from each album, I would bring out "Buffalo Ballet" and "Ship of Fools" (Fear), "Mr Wilson" and "Guts" (Slow Dazzle) and "Cable Hougue" and "I Keep a Close Watch" ( Helen of Troy)

Among the bonus tracks "All I Want is You" and "Bamboo Floor" from the "Slow Dazzle" sessions are gems that had deserved inclusion in the first place.

The 24 pages booklet with a fine essay by Ben Edmonds contains interesting recollections from the various sessions and informative notes on many tracks.

Simply a great buy!

John Cale fans are a small minority out there compared to Lou Reed fans or even Velvet Underground fans. That's tragic because Cale has, arguably, the more consistent and dazzling solo career of the two.

"The Island Years" collects the three studio albums he made while at Island Records "Slow Dazzle", "Fear" and "Helen of Troy". The three albums are combined here with outtakes, unreleased tracks, etc. providing fans with a pretty comprehensive picture of what Cale recorded at Island during that time and also three of his most challenging, dazzling and fascinating albums.

Of the three "Helen of Troy" (which wasn't finished when it was released--Cale went on tour and Island sequenced the tracks that had been completed putting them out without his permission)remains the true masterpiece of the three while "Slow Dazzle" lives up to its title from the avant garde, bruised and broken reading of "Heartbreak Hotel" to the very last track. The oldest album of three is, in many respects, the middle child of the trio-- "Fear" has its moments including a brilliant pair of songs including "Gun" with its stuttering guitar part (courtesy of Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera) and the bizarrely titled "Momamma Scuba" with Richard Thompson and Phil Manzanera guesting on guitar (Eno appears all over the album as well)and with backing vocals that sound like they were provided by Yoko Ono. John Lennon would have been proud to include both tracks on "Plastic Ono Band" but the album is, not surprisingly, far from radio friendly and lacks the distinct use of melody that was a hallmark of, say, "Paris 1919" or "Vintage Violence" his earlier releases.

All three are essential for Cale fans and the mastering here is quite good if a bit louder than the original CD releases. I'd suggest getting them here because of the unreleased outtakes as well as the price--"Helen of Troy" the rarest of the three albums is expensive to pick up on its own and early copies of "Fear" suffer from CD rot so this is probably the best place to get all three.