Gil Scott-Heron
I'm New Here XL/ Remote Control If there's only one thing that you take away from listening to 'I'm New Here', it's that you can't keep a good man down. Gil Scott-Heron, the man who declared that "the revolution will not be televised" and set the template for genres like hip-hop and neo soul, has had a rough run in the past few years. He has spent time in and out of jail for cocaine possession, yet somehow the man has managed this astonishing, relevant piece of social commentary. No one would have blamed Scott-Heron for resting on his laurels on this, his first album of new material in some thirteen years. However, rather than perpetuating the genres he helped to create, Scott-Heron and producer Richard Russell have pushed in an entirely different direction. Instead of a re-tread, 'I'm New Here' finds the 60-year old re-inventing himself, while occasionally referencing both the past and the present. The first single, a cover of Robert Johnson's delta blues classic Me And The Devil, is absolutely flooring to listen to. A dark, loping electronic beat propels the track over Scott-Heron's cracked, deeper-than-deep voice, and Johnson's lyrics, so often repeated in blues circles, take on an entirely new meaning. It's hypnotic, seductive and damned dangerous sounding, and it goes to show that Scott-Heron is pulling no punches. Elsewhere, he finds the flowing lyricism of earlier works in spoken word pieces like On Coming From A Broken Home and the dark Where Did The Night Go. Everywhere, the pervading feeling is one of darkness tinged with hope. It's quite amazing, as after a lifetime spent railing against the establishment in anger, run-ins with the law and general trouble, no one would have been surprised if 'I'm New Here' was a bitter indictment of humanity. But it's not - despite tracks like the sparse, funky New York Is Killing Me, the mood remains peaceful and forward thinking. It's summed up perfectly on the title track, itself a cover of a Smog song, when Scott-Heron sings "I'm new here," and it feels like it. Rather than a cynical back stare, 'I'm New Here' looks forward to the future, never runs out its welcome at 28 minutes, and hopefully points towards a whole new phase of Scott-Heron's career, one not punctuated by any more thirteen-year absences.  |
Issue 489
Music
