Titel

Life in Music inspired by Joe Henry


Review Invisible Hour on 'Ravno Do Dna'



By Ivan Laic

This is a translation of an interview on Ravno Do Dna .


Ever since he produced the flawless comeback album "Do not Give Up on Me” by Solomon Burke, Joe Henry primarily took over the creation of an atmosphere soaked records from Daniel Lanois and became, along with T-Bone Burnett, one of the most sought after and respected producers of today. -

In his own excellent album trilogy consisting of "Tiny Voices", "Civilians" and "Blood from the Stars" he brought his specific, smoky noir sound close to perfection, and then the album "Reverie" returned the acoustics of previous albums, and thus his just published thirteenth album "Invisible Hour" sounds more like, for example, his Americana album "Short Man's Room" from 1992. than these albums made in the past decade.

On the poetic level, it seems that Henry decided to direct less abstract verses than on the last album, which turned out to be a good decision. The song "Sign" was created from the project ‘Narrative4’ by Irish writer Colum McCann (who also co-wrote the title track of this album). He assembled a team made up of teachers, writers and activists, as well as the famous writer Salman Rushdie, actor Gabriel Byrne and of course, Joe Henry. The task was to write a short fiction that was published in Esquire collectively "How To Be A Man". Henry has translated his story into a nine minute waltz which draws attention with it’s sense of narrative, and proves once again that Joe is a first grade songwriter, and actually all the time remains poorly observed and underreported.

It is a story about a guy who pretends to be deaf and escapes from Montreal into the wide world and downfall. The drums and clarinet convert the waltz into a funeral march, and the listener is pulled into the sad parade with the feeling like he’s dragging feet, hat pressed to chest. The album opener is another beauty named "Sparrow" that uniquely reflects on marriage (and I purposely have left out the fact to whom Henry is married); the introductory verses read: "It was not peace I wanted, it was not peace I found ..." Indeed, marriage is the main theme of the album, but the songs on it are not about marital bliss, or about the hardships, but rather serve as a study of philosophical theories about community which Henry exhibits with great poetic skill, that at times sounds like the word of Shakespeare set to music. "Grave Angels' is the brightest moment of the album, in which he provides a much needed emotional balance, making it a more valuable experience. The song sums up the theme of marriage in the lyrics: "I take all this to be holy / If futile, uncertain and dire / Our union of fracture, our everlasting dread / This beautiful, desperate desire".

In more than the last 10 years, whenever Joe Henry put out a record, it was an album worthy of making any of the Top 10, if not Top 5 lists of the best albums of the year. "Invisible Hour" is by no means an exception.

Rating: 9/10

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