Through the 5+1 solo albums he has made so far, Greg Ashley has shown that if you are to fit into the shoes of guys like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed and Syd Barrett you really have to be damn good, diverse and both musically and lyrically adept. Oh, and learning the right things from the masters and being very talented really helps. And with his fifth solo album, Pictures of Saint Paul Street he does all that. By the way, that +1 is his full recount of Leonard Cohen’s often doubted masterpiece Death Of A Ladies Man, which Ashley did in 2012.
Ashley got my interest with his first solo album, Medicine Fuck Dream, back in 2003. It carried over the traces of his psych band Gris-Gris, but had that off-kilter musical and lyrical traces of Syd Barrett, and all of the above-mentioned guys, Reed and Cohen slowly cropping up more and more as references as the albums came coming up. So we come up to his fifth now, Pictures of Saint Paul Street. While Ashley’s musical and production talents were quite evident from before, particularly his penchant for musical styles that by just their description are not necessarily compatible with modern pop, like pre-war style swing, this is the album where his lyrical qualities reach a new high.
Now, Ashley deals with themes that have a very serious undertone, from social and political problems to drug abuse, but here he shows the touch that can bring him up to the level of the masters that seems to have inspired him. Combining these serious themes with quite upbeat music (the opener A Sea of Suckers is a good indicator) Ashley goes the path of irony and cynicism, something you really have to know how to do not to turn it into an ugly mush, and he makes it: “Journalism’s dead, so propaganda does me the favor/it’s giving me the news, I’m just an idealistic sucker/I’m giving up on dreams, I’m through with you worthless motherfuckers,” (Goodbye Saint Paul Street). No wonder he covered Death Of A Ladies Man in its entirety, it was after all one of Cohen’s most cynical albums.
Still, with all the influences and irony and cynicism Ashley comes through this album, possibly his best so far, not only as his own man but as a musical and lyrical force to be reckoned with. This one is already noted on that “best of the year” list…
