We've had Micah P. Hinson and the Gospel of Progress; Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit, Micah P. Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra; Micah P. Hinson and the Pioneering Saboteurs; now that he is with 'the nothing' suggests an ending of sorts; as though the latest incarnation of Micah P. Hinson no longer has faith in progress and pioneering.
The lyrics to The Same Old Shit are certainly steeped in pessimism but then again, like so much of what the man does this could be another pose for effect.
On the face of it Hinson is an artist I should unconditionally approve of - he's independent, offbeat and a perpetual outsider with a cynical distaste for the modern world.
But ever since I saw a lacklustre live performance by him in 2005 I've never been able to shake the notion that this Texan singer songwriter is a bit of a sham. Interviews in which he comes over as a self righteous, right wing bigot (he calls Barack Obama a murderer) don't help to win me over to his side.
I therefore come to this album with a fair amount of misgivings although I tried to set these aside to give him a fair hearing. I felt some sympathy too as he's obviously had a shitty time of it of late.
He was involved in a near fatal car accident in Spain which left him temporarily unable to use his arms. A demo of songs written before the accident somehow turned into this 12-song album, partly with the help of a band of local Spanish musicians - The Aquattro String Quartet.
This is Hinson's first release on the French label Talitres and features him crooning like a poor man's Johnny Cash or else practising what sounds suspiciously like bad singing on purpose.
|
The punk energy of the opening track - How Are You Just A Dream? - is impressive in a shambolic way but is not representative as nothing else on the record matches this chaotic energy.
The quieter tunes like The Quill and A Million Light Years convince me more because they don't seem to be hiding behind a 'look how weird I can be' mask.
However, even when he sounds serious, like on the otherwise intriguing Sons Of The USSR, there's the nagging doubt that he's faking it.
The piano ballad I Ain't Movin' is the best track - a defiant this gentleman's not for turning statement "You can push me all you dare, I ain't movin'. It has a quiet menace to it that sounds genuine even to a sceptic like me.
This album is so peculiar that it won't win Hinson any new fans but those who love his work will doubtless lap it up.
As someone looking for any excuse to do a hatchet job, I have to grudgingly admit that some of this stuff is pretty good.
Micah P. Hinson's website
|
