Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Few would chose Julian Lennon's life: an absent or indifferent famous father whose murder severed any further possible contact when he was 17; his own musical career always inviting a comparison he couldn't win or, worse maybe, the expectation of his father's slavish loyalists expecting him to be something he never could . . .
Then there was the money, Yoko, step-brother Sean ascendant . . .
Would he join the remaining Threetles? What about a band with the sons of Paul, Ringo and George?
The surprise is that not only did Julian Lennon survive all of this as an intact adult (he's now 59) but that he actually delivered a couple of more than decent albums in Valotte ('84) and The Secret Value of Daydreaming ('86).
And even parts of the somewhat lesser, Mr Jordan ('89).
He also displayed a sense of humour in the Rutles-cum-Beatles parody clip for his I Don't Wannna Know (which was also a more than decent pop-rock song).
He seemed to figure that if he had to live with all that baggage he might as well accept it and – like Harrison who underwrote The Rutles – just enjoy the silliness of it all.
After all, he performed a terrific version of Johnny B Goode with Chuck Berry on Keith Richards' Berry tribute television special, only to have Chuck thank him as “John . . . ah . . . Julian Lennon”
Forgivable mistake by Chuck perhaps, but if you were Julian Lennon . . .
Comfortable with the legacy, he now releases his first album in 11 years under the title Jude, acknowledging the song Paul McCartney wrote for him way back in '68.
However where once he wrote or co-wrote his own songs this time out he leans on others, notably Guy Chambers (World Party, Robbie Williams and others )for Love Won't Let Me Down and a whopping seven writers for Lucky One.
Perhaps as befits a man of his age, Jude is less a frantic rock'n'pop album than one which favours downbeat, embellished ballads (the drifting Freedom, the acoustic Not One Night, the Noel Gallagher-like Round and Round Again) although when he embraces a kind of electro-pop on the dramatic Every Little Moment there's something serious happening lyrically and in his commitment.
Apparently some of these songs were left-overs from previous sessions but because they conform to pop norms that hardly matters.
What is disappointing is just how few of them really stick on repeat plays.
But the standouts – notably the glorious art-pop of Gaia with Blue Nile's Paul Buchanan and French-Japanese singer Elissa Lauper also on vocals – are quite compelling.
Overall however, perhaps the resonances of the Beatles, Rutles and Oasis et al have spoiled this legacy for Julian Lennon and the rest of us.
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You can hear this album at Spotify here
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