Cockney Rebel - The Human Menagerie (1973) Expanded Reissue 2004
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 310 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 117 Mb | Scans ~ 55 Mb
Classic Rock, Glam Rock | Label: BGO | # BGOCD616 | Time: 00:51:06
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 310 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 117 Mb | Scans ~ 55 Mb
Classic Rock, Glam Rock | Label: BGO | # BGOCD616 | Time: 00:51:06
Indulging for the first time in Cockney Rebel's debut album – and one uses the word "indulging" deliberately, for like so much else that's this delicious, you cannot help but feel faintly sinful when it's over – is like waking up from a really weird dream, and discovering that reality is weirder still. A handful of Human Menagerie's songs are slight, even forced, and certainly indicative of the group's inexperience. But others – the labyrinthine "Sebastian," the loquacious "Death Trip" in particular – possess confidence, arrogance, and a doomed, decadent madness which astounds. Subject to ruthless dissection, Steve Harley's lyrics were essentially nonsense, a stream of disconnected images whose most gallant achievement is that they usually rhyme. But what could have been perceived as a weakness – or, more generously, an emotionally overwrought attempt to blend Byron with Burroughs – is actually their strength.
