John Cale
POPtical Illusion
DOMINO/DOUBLE SIX
If last year’s Mercy seemed like a dark victory lap for John Cale’s long career as The Velvet Underground’s co-founder, as a producer of renown (early albums from The Stooges, Patti Smith, and Modern Lovers), and as a genre-jumping solo artist with contemporary guests such as Weyes Blood, Dev Hynes, and Animal Collective’s Avey Tare and Panda Bear recently paying tribute, 2024’s POPtical Illusion is something far different: Cale, by himself, gone happily to extremes while managing handsome approachability.
In that regard, POPtical is the better, more personal album (not that Mercy is bad—just wonkier and more overtly politicized in spots), one alive with Cale’s patented, prickly but melodious brand of vintage violence, noisy instrumentation, and minimalist fury on sizzling, repetitive rockers such as “Shark-Shark” and piano-pounded, hunted-down art songs like “How We See the Light.” Still in possession of one of arch-pop’s richest, most rounded voices, Cale’s baritone vocals teem with the echo FX he brought to Mercy, yet they come through the din in more poignant, pointed fashion—perhaps due to how resonant these lyrics are to the 82-year-old musician. As the album’s fourth track proclaims, he’s at the edge of reason here, shortly after brimming with disgust on the sparsely arranged “I’m Angry.”
But there’s a romanticism and awe to his ire and reason that hangs its hat on Cale’s natural gifts of charm and wonder as a writer and as a singer. Never underestimate the power of coming at any form of new music with a sense of delight and freshness, a zeal that has its grooviest moments on “Funkball the Brewster” and “Company Commander.” Without having to dully ruminate on his age, Cale simply sounds younger than most of his 20-year-old contemporaries in modern art and alterna-noise—as if he’s up for anything and everything with POPtical Illusion.
