The Best Album You Never Bought 4.22.08: Sean Lennon Doesn't Suck

Posted by Dan Yates on 04.22.2008

Sean Lennon is famous. He has famous parents. He has famous friends. Sometimes, he is a musician. Very slowly, he is becoming a very good musician. But why should you care about him? Because he's just as sad as you are, apparently.

New week. New column. A day late. Whatever.

Ah, it's the last half of April, spring is drawing to a close and summer is within arm's reach. However, I happen to live in some god awful part of the North American continent where there's been a threat of snow over the past two days and the shift back in temperature has me thinking a little bit differently. So, before we discard our scarves and cardigans for Hawaiian party shirts, flower embroidered shorts, thong sandals and beer box hats and boldly state our predictions for song of the summer, let's jump back a few seasons and briefly look at, what I consider to be, a really good fall album — Sean Lennon's Friendly Fire.


When not writing or recording, Sean Lennon takes walks. For years at a time.

All of Sean Lennon's past and future releases should come with some kind of disclaimer or insert providing a series of step by step instructions — a manual on "How to Listen to Sean Lennon" if you will. Like swimming too soon after eating, most cannot dive right into a Sean Lennon album unprepared. It takes a certain amount of preparation and consideration to ready oneself. Lennon doesn't always make for the easiest listen.

First, if we were to call Lennon a singer-songwriter that wouldn't be completely inaccurate. However, Lennon is more the latter than the former. The guy isn't much of a singer. That's no issue for me, but for those with more discriminating ears, it will be hard to digest

Secondly, Lennon isn't the kind of character that everyday Joes like you and me easily relate to and sympathize with. The son of pop music royalty, he's lived a privileged life. He's never had to pump gas, flip burgers or cut grass to make a living and it's hard to imagine what sacrifices he's had to make in his life. Growing up, his childhood, we can only guess, was like some snooty New York version of the O.C. Welcome to Greenwich Village, bitch.

And that, I promise, will be the last reference to Lennon's parents (what are their names?). Those comparisons are in no way fair. Yet, I can't stop making them. There are like three more to come …

With these barriers in the way, Lennon deserves some strong kudos when he pulls it together and releases something that is not only listenable but which is entirely enjoyable.

Eight years after his debut album Into the Sun, Lennon reemerged, almost out of obscurity, and jumped back under the scrutiny spotlight in 2006 with Friendly Fire. Few artists could take such a long hiatus in between albums while maintaining any kind of lifestyle and retaining any interest in their work., but Lennon can. Some will make some easy criticisms of Lennon for doing so, but I can't fault him for it. If you can get away with it, why not?

Perhaps he abused this privilege by taking an obscene eight years in between releases or perhaps he was trying to distance himself from the reaction to his debut album. Regardless of what he did in those eight years, Lennon came back in 2006 not only older, but seemingly more mature and with a decisively more palatable knack for taste.


Sean Lennon likes drawerings

And that's not to say Into the Sun is a bad album, which itself a strange and interesting debut for a 22 year old. Into the Sun can stand on its one. It's more than an album made by the son of some famous people and critics got that, but I think it went unnoticed or unappreciated by others.

Into the Sun is a laid back, jazzy affair that toys with some post-grunge sounds of the mid 1990s. There's a lot there for music nerds to pick apart and, likely, that's what the album is. It's Lennon, himself likely a music nerd, and a Wunderkind of sorts, going nuts. One can debate its merits, but the album will always leave most split. You'll either love it or hate it.

Friendly Fire though is a lot different and much easier to get into. Musically, the album doesn't do anything new, which is good. It allows Lennon's writing to take the spotlight and in this category, he proves himself capable. In ten songs, Lennon strings together one cohesive storyline, telling a deeply personal tale of love found and lost, betrayal and, ultimately, death. The opening track sets the pace with a kind of playground statement — "You're dead meat." Lennon builds onto his story from this instant and immature reaction, eventually reaching his more thoughtful and "adult" conclusions.


Is that a Beatle haircut?

The album picks up in the coming tracks highlighted by the standout "Friendly Fire." Occasionally, Lennon falls into cliché territory ("Love is such a dangerous game") but, for the most part, Lennon's writing is smart and clever — hiding his emotions behind thinly guised metaphors and allusions. The album reaches its would-be denouement on "Would I be the one" slowly building itself up, layer by layer, becoming the album's most furious and indicting song, before climbing back down and introducing us to Lennon's final words on "Falling out of Love."

Thematically, the album doesn't say anything beyond "Love Hurts," but if it took his father a lot more than two albums to say anything more than that, so we can be forgiving in this case. Besides, simple ideas establish some common ground between the listener and Lennon. Sometimes the best ideas are the most obvious ones.

Friendly Fire came packaged with a companion DVD providing videos for all of the album's tracks. If Friendly Fire was a P.R. campaign selling Lennon's face to the masses, the album takes two steps forward and reflects favorably upon him. The album's movie equivalent is then at least one-step backwards. As one cohort of mine stated, "the movie is an exercise in all things pretentious."

Despite a few celebrity cameos, including the famous coked up Lindsay Lohan, and at least one potshot at half-brother Julian, the movie is of little interest. Scenes not underscored by the music are dry, poorly paced and often wander aimlessly. And while Lennon can masquerade as a good songwriter and an OK singer, he's no actor. The film does little to expand upon the album and must only exist because Lennon really, really wanted to play with swords.

Apparently, the movie portion of the album was made as part of a series of screen tests for a film project,
Coin Locker Babies, that Lennon is also working on, which is interesting, but doesn't stop the movie from sucking.

In two albums, Lennon has shown a low of growth. While he in no way needs it, and perhaps he doesn't even want it, Lennon is deserving of more commercial success. Friendly Fire is a kind of statement and with it he claimed his own small spot in the music landscape, gaining a lot of respect along the way. If Lennon continues to grow in this fashion, his next album should raise even more attention … in 2014.