John Cale is best known as an adventurous creator of music, most notably with his efforts in the cult-like music group The Velvet Underground, playing electric viola and contributing other Avant-Garde sounds during his time as a member of The Velvet Underground. He was a large part of that group’s early sound. Shortly after he left The Velvet Underground, he began a moderately successful solo career. This early release in his solo career is seen as one of the most underrated album releases of its time. This album also has some notable guest musicians on it as well, such as Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera. This album is John Cale’s fourth, after being signed to Island Records. Let’s take a good listen to this album and we shall hope that it stands tall to this day.

Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend begins with some prominent piano and sounds really great from the start. Some soft electric guitar then follows. John Cale sings in a clear and clean voice, and he delivers a fantastic ballad from the start. This song is about fear itself, and despite its title and lyrical/singing nature, this is an eye-opening and great listening experience. The piano builds up in prominence and chugging sounds before John Cale launches into a good chorus. John Cale does not have the best singing voice, to be frank, but he sounds better than Chris Martin of Coldplay here. A solid listening experience that is gorgeous, interesting and different throughout. All in all, a very joyous and sweet tune to listen to. Towards the end, the guitar parts and pianos are matched with some unusual gurgling bass guitar, along with vocals that descend into screams, over the weird bass guitar. A good song.

Buffalo Ballet is another piano ballad, this one being quite a lot more melodic than the previous song. John Cale sings nicely here, and the music is pretty, enjoyable and beautiful throughout. John Cale tells the tale of small-town life, alongside piano and violin. This is very pretty, lovely and unique. A really cool and unique sort of listen, this proves that John Cale has more credit than being just a contributor to The Velvet Underground. This song reaches a sweet climax in the second half, and John Cale reveals a sensitive side to himself that the Velvets never showed when he was with them. “Sleeping in the midday sun…” is repeated here throughout, alongside multitracked string parts. A fantastic song to listen to until this very day. Lovely to hear. It fades out at the end.

Barracuda begins with some very simple drumbeats, and interesting and audible bass guitar and is quickly followed by clean guitars and weird keyboards. John Cale sounds really good on this song, and the music present is weird yet very wonderful. A powerful, pretty and excellent ballad full of quirky sounds and music to boot. This is good music if you like early 1970s Pop/Rock served quirky. A pleasant and weird listen, this has some weird violin-sounding soloing in the second half, which is as weird as it comes. Still, this music is a really good example of quality over quantity in music. The weirdness of this song is well-matched by professional and excellent songcraft. The outro is a very strange musical section, which fades out. Good tune.

Emily begins with more piano work and some unusual electronic sounds in the background. John Cale sings quite sweetly in this tune and definitely makes a good impression on the listener. It is a mournful ballad that sounds romantic in nature about a said Emily of one’s fancy. The chorus has soul-styled female backing vocals, alongside John Cale’s calm singing and piano playing away. This is a better tune than expected, and it does sound really sweet and brilliant. The music is romantic in nature, with an unusual nod to the spirit of the 1960s works by The Beatles. The chorus is awesome with some great singing and other unorthodox instrumentation throughout. Nonetheless, this masterwork of an album shines bright all the way through. The chorus returns one final time at the end with (what sounds like) Mandolin being furiously played in the background. Great tune.

Ship Of Fools begins with some very much The Beach Boys-styled melodies on piano and xylophone, along with some simple drumming. John Cale sings well here, and it sounds as though he has a unique musical talent that few could identify with. This is a sweet and adventurous song that is really good to hear and tells the tale of travelling by sea. It sounds very, very close to Brian Wilson territory, so much so that you will wonder if this is not a direct rip-off musically of The Beach Boys music. Regardless, a very good listening experience that is bright, pleasant and breezy. A very simple listen from a simpler time in humanity’s existence, this sounds super gorgeous. A fantastic-sounding effort by John Cale, and a listening experience that is worth it. It fades out quickly after four and a half minutes in length.

Gun is an eight-minute-long piece with guitar riffs and pounding drums, to begin with. John Cale sings well on this tune, and he delivers a quirky story at hand. This music no doubt inspired many Punk and Post-Punk musicians in the latter part of the decade, and this comes as no real surprise in that way. The music is simple, melodic and driven. The guitar solo in the first half of the song is very sweet sounding, and the verses that follow are very simply good. This is an extended piece of music that is quite reminiscent of some of the longer pieces on The Velvet Underground album White Light/White Heat. In addition, this is original musical territory. Nothing has sounded quite like this before or since. The midsection has some very odd soloing sounds that are really quirky, yet cool to listen to. A weird tune, but something worth listening to. The guitar solo and music in the second half are really good, but only very much recommended for those of you who value wacky and discordant sounds in their music. Soon enough, John Cale returns on vocals and he sounds very nice here indeed. The chorus in particular is very catchy. After the singing stops, there is more discordant and rather awful-sounding guitar soloing. A very strange listen, that is for sure. This sounds quite unbearable after a while. Eventually, this extended jam wraps up with a fade-out at the end of it all. Weird.

The Man Who Couldn’t Afford To Orgy is a humourous song title if there ever were one. It begins with a chugging piano and launches into a guitar-based ballad that sounds really weird. A cool listen, there are some spoken word parts by a lady after the chorus. This points out that, if you are poor and broke, then as a man you are undoubtedly out of luck with romance/sex life. The guitar playing throughout is very, very good and it sounds nicely played and super sweet. This is simple music that is really in a genre of its own. In any case, this is another solidly good song that sounds unusually quirky yet explorational in its very own way. The female vocals after the chorus in the background sound very sensual, erotic and dirty. It’s supposed to be. A neat little number nonetheless, it ends with a prolonged fade out.

You Know More Than I Know is one of the more popular pieces from this album. It begins with multitracked strummed acoustic guitars, clean electric guitars and some different singing by John Cale. Soon enough, drums enter and this song gets going away very nicely. This isn’t a million miles away from The Beatles 1969 Abbey Road album in terms of overall sound. All in all, this pleasant and driven acoustic guitar and piano-based ballad sounds really fresh and great. This is a very pleasant listen regardless. In the second half is a bridge section that continues the song away very well. The clean electric guitar parts are well-played as well. A very good song and listening experience, this music powers along sweetly and nicely, all the way through to the end where it ends nicely.

Momamma Scuba is a weird number to finish off this album. It has quirky playing and sounds far out. This has acoustic guitar, slide guitar, electric guitar and drums over unorthodox melodies and playing throughout. To be fair, not a lot of people will enjoy this final song. Regardless, its unusual sound and nature are very welcome on this album. Weird and wonderful, John Cale shows his own unique musical personality throughout this album. A really unusual and weird tune, the lyrics are certainly odd as well. This is the equivalent of painting a musical picture that is very abstract. The second half has an unusual guitar solo, before returning to the chorus. John Cale does some pseudo-Yoko Ono wailing towards the end, and to be fair, that is not necessary. Still, this is a very good song to finish this album off with.

This is a very good album that sounds consistently listenable throughout each track. However, this album has a slight flaw in the fact that the music is very plain on this album, and it lacks the adventurous nature of The Velvet Underground’s albums. Despite that, this album release is a solid listening experience that is designed to be heard when facing one’s fears head-on. Should you listen to this album? Do give it a try, but people who don’t like simple piano and guitar driven ballad musical pieces should look elsewhere.

A refreshing take on Pop/Rock Music.

8/10