Kevin Ayers - 2007 - The Unfairground

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.75 out of 5

A musical slacker in the best possible sense of the word, Kevin Ayers has apparently been lounging on the beaches of Spain for the past 15 years strumming these songs on his guitar. Someone fortunately heard the quality of these songs and has been occasionally shoving Mr. Ayers into the studio for the past few years. The final product is surprisingly prime Ayers and comfortably sits on the shelf along with his great late 60's early 70's psych/folk.

The production distinctly harkens back to the sound of "Joy Of A Toy." There's a extremely diverse and organic collection of instruments on "The Unfairground." Fortunately the glam/prog experiments of the 70's and the thin, uninspired sound of his 80's recordings are nowhere to be found here. If anything, the well-done orchestrations present here suggests "Sgt. Pepper's" or "Forever Changes." Still, this is just icing on the cake as the core of the tunes here really is just Kevin and his acoustic guitar playing some of his best written tunes since, uh, well... ever. Ayers' also manage to dodge any signs of aging in his vocals. The fellow is well into his 60's, but sounds pretty much the same as he did in 1969 (maybe there's a slight touch of gravel, but it sounds fine). I'm sure it helps that Ayers has always sung in a warm baritone rather than a soaring falsetto or something.

Even on the classic "Joy Of A Toy," Ayers often let his ideas overstay their welcome and threadbare constructions would drone on for five minutes. Here we have fully realized compositions, so the production serves the songs instead of the other way around. I'd be willing to say that what would make up the first side on vinyl ("Only Heaven Knows," "Cold Shoulder," "Walk On Water," "Friends And Strangers") is Ayers' best run of songs ever and is even able to stand side-by-side with a classic like "Forever Changes." The second half of the album loses a little steam, but "Wide Awake" logs in one more essential Ayers tune.

With the first side presenting some of the best tunes of 2007, "The Unfairground" isn't just a comeback, but rather a complete reinvigoration. Hopefully given a couple more years on Spanish beaches, Ayers will find a little more inspiration in the back of his mind and bless us with a follow-up to this fine album. If not, this is the perfect coda for an underground psych superstar.

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Kevin Ayers - 2007 - The Unfairground

Kevin Ayers- Bananamour (1973)

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3 out of 5 (5 for "Decadence")

By the time of this release, Kevin Ayers had spent far more time as a solo artist than as part of the Soft Machine. The sound here still occassionally recalls that band, but there is a much more folky quality permeating much of this disc and the songwriting here is much stronger than his first solo recordings. Still, Ayers does not strive for any kind of unified vibe here. We find a psychedelic drone-fest along side an attempt to recreate a Stax Records sound. It's a little hit or miss, and probably less than the sum of its parts, but fortunately most of the parts are pretty strong. Production-wise, Bananamour recalls other albums of it's time, especially glam rockers like T. Rex and Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie, but Ayers sensibilities mostly remain in the 60's.

Ayers' for the most part does a fine job balancing his own psych-folk muse with concessions to glam rock and a singer-songwriter sound on Bananamour. The opening "Don't Let It Get You Down (For Rachel)" is a solidly constructed example with the core song very much recalls Carnaby Street pop, but the female vocals, watery guitar, and fluid bass guitar shift the vibe a little more into the 70's. Many of the best tracks here follow an acoustic template with perhaps a nod or two to contemporary sounds. "Shouting In A Bucket Blues" is a rolling number with great sad sack lyrics and a touch of glam guitar from Gong's Steve Hillage. Later we find "Oh! Wot A Dream" recalling some of Dylan's dream lyrics filtered through Ayers' Cambridge sensibilites and featuring a duck sound on the rhythm track. Although the Soft Machine is firmly in Ayers past, band alumni Mike Ratledge shows up on organ for the somewhat derivative "Interview" (although some strange dissonance and amusing lyrics save this sort of bluesy number), while Robert Wyatt provides harmony vocals to the lilting "Hymn."

The centerpiece and perhaps best track on the album is also somewhat of an anamoly. "Decadance" drones along with almost a kraut-rock vibe, with a bed of delayed guitars, droning analog synths (maybe these were borrowed from Gong too?), and mostly metronomic beats. It's by far the most psychedelic song on the album, and Ayers' absurdist lyrics completely match the music. There's an alternate mix of "Decadence" in the bonus section that is interesting for a comparison, but inferior to the album version and not essential.

The only misstep is the aforementioned Stax knockoff, "When Your Parents Go To Sleep." First off, bassist Archie Leggett gets the lead vocal instead of Ayers and this obscures much of the charm of Ayers' lyrics. The big problem is that the five minute track seriously disrupts the flow of the album, and probably would have been better as a B-side. This is not to say it's a bad song. There's a groovy horn section here and the rhythm section works hard to live up to an MGs sort of vibe. It would have been a great B-side, but sticks out like a sore thumb in the context of Bananamour. I'd probably enjoy "Interview" much more if this track did not precede it.

The album proper concludes with the majestically orchestrated, bad joke of a song (literally and intentionally) "Beware Of The Dog." It a silly track, but short and a perfect way for Ayers to end his album. It's kind of like Ayers' version of the Looney Tunes "T-That's All Folks" closer.

Excluding the alternate mix, the bonus tracks here reveal a unexpected obsession with tropical islands, reggae, and calypso. "Take Me To Tahiti" and "Carribean Moon" reference this directly in their titles while "Connie On A Rubber Band" is arranged with a reggae beat. All three are predictable breezy and make for an enjoyable sundrenched aural dessert after Bananamour.

Ayers' would soon depart Harvest Records to work out his prog-rock mojo on Island Records. Bananamour was an undeserved commercial flop and in fact Ayers would never experience any large scale success. This is unfortunate as Bananamour is a strong testament to his songwriting skills.

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Kevin Ayers - Bananamour

Kevin Ayers- Joy Of A Toy (1969)

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

Kevin Ayers is sort of a lesser known musical cousin to Syd Barrett. His distinctive baritone voice exists in the same strange netherworld as Barrett, although Ayers seems much more in control of what he's expressing. Ayers served for one album as the leader of the tripped out and reknown London based Soft Machine (although significantly less reknown than Pink Floyd) and quickly split to start his solo career. Unlike Barrett, Ayers left more for the infamous creative differences, which seems to be accurate in this case. Ayers wanted to explore poppier avenues while the rest of the band soon followed their jazz-fusion, prog-rock muse. And like Barrett's The Madcap Laughs, Ayers created A Joy Of A Toy with the blessing, and even active particiption of his former bandmates.

A Joy Of A Toy has some definite attributes. There is a folkish vibe from the late 60's Cambridge scene audibly present, but Ayers does view into many interesting and sometimes unexpected venues of sound. Ayers' lyrics are uniformily of a high caliber surrealist nature that is worth paying attention to. It's not quite Dylan, but can be quite mindbending. Better yet is Ayers ability to create distinctive musical atmospheres. The are a slew of instruments included in the arrangements of this album including cello, celeste, melodica, Hawaiian guitar, mouth organ, and electronics along with the more conventional rock instrumentation.

A carnival atmosphere begins the album on "Joy Of A Toy Continued," a mostly instumental Soft Machine rewrite that doesn't really resemble its mother song much at all. "The Clarietta Rag" is a full fledged pop song that revises this bouncy feel. "Town Feeling," "The Lady Rachel," and "All This Crazy Gift Of Song" echo, but do not emulate, the acid drenched vibe of Barrett's solo performances. "Girl On A Swing" is truly haunting and provides some truely stirring psychedelic imagery. On Joy Of A Toy, Ayers is much more in control of his facilities than Syd Barrett's somewhat similar solo LPs, but Ayers trades in the mystery of Barrett's unhinged performances for a little more musicality and stability. As I stated before, The Soft Machine's presence is clearly heard and drummer Robert Wyatt provides most of the beats on this album. In fact the floating "Song For Insane Times" features the entire band, and might be considered a Soft Machine band as it contains the complete 1968-1969 line up (who never played together elsewhere as Hugh Hopper was Ayers' replacement).

I've often heard that Ayers is regarded as a bit of a musical slacker. This is hard to dispute on A Joy Of A Toy. The shorter compositions do not at all overstay their welcome, but still tend to rely mostly on a single groove. This becomes a problem on the longer songs. "Stop This Train" comes out on top due to its concept of train travel although the track does not reward close attention. "Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong" unfortunately more than overstays its welcome. The different iterations of "Religious Experience/Singing A Song In The Morning" in the bonus section are musically pretty cool, but suffers from the fact that Ayers only bothered to write one verse of lyrics.

The bonus tracks here are extremely valuable, and add a considerable amount of music to this 2003 reissue. Among the different versions of "Religious Experience" is an early take that actually features Barrett on lead guitar. His part is slightly disjointed, and absent from the final single, but sounds a lot more together that Barrett's reputation suggests. Also present is "Soon Soon Soon," an album quality outtake and some interesting later versions of "The Lady Rachel."

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Kevin Ayers - Joy Of a Toy