In 2022, Captain of the Lost Waves (Shaun T Hunter) and his family were caught up in a road traffic accident, a stolen vehicle being chased by the police smashing into them. On serious pain relief and other medication, this wonderful album, Beautiful Ugly, was created, a testament to the indefatigability of this man and, I think, humanity. We are capable of so much, if only we put our heart and soul into it. I might add here that my research prior to publishing these words saw that his wife and son have both had medical issues of late, and this website sends its love and best wishes for recovery.
The artist is rightly highly regarded across the roots scene, and this album is a deeply reflective and thoughtful work. As most of my readers are, of course, connoisseurs of progressive rock music, I would state unequivocally that if you rate (as I do) the solo work of Anthony Phillips as up there with the best, then you will love this album.
It is, though, an album which is extremely difficult to both categorise and write about. Having listened multiple times, each instance brings a different set of words and meanings, and therein, of course, lies its attraction and importance, music and lyrics which bring something new each time, which demand attention and most certainly respect. Therefore, the words you read here pertain to my thoughts this weekend. They were different last weekend. They will be different next weekend, and each which follows, and this is as strong a recommendation I am able to give you.
The Captain sings, and plays bouzouki and guitar, and he is joined by Damian Clark on keyboards & synths, with Wendy Ross on the violin.
The Bandcamp page is at https://captainofthelostwaves.bandcamp.com/ and the album is released on the day of the publication of this review (30th September 2024). His website is at https://captainofthelostwaves.com/
So, nine tracks here, and we open with Obsidian Whispers, the artist speaking out in the kingdom of the nihilistic and cynical. The soundscapes created by Clark are atmospheric, and the whole track is a spacey yet powerful work, the acoustic guitar work a backdrop to a unique voice. A very strong start.
Dirty Windows follows, and it lyrically takes us to the ancient Middle East, Torah, but through the (dirty) window of our modern sensibilities, many of the timeless truths that we still refuse to see with our grasping and leeching. The voice is plaintive, the instrumentation gently washing Sumerian landscapes over us.
Success In Failure has a video, and this is embedded below for you to enjoy, this the first single from the album. The voice is a prime example of the art of making powerful words reverb across aural senses without the need to shout and scream, this a meditation on our notions of what constitutes success and failure. It is also, I believe a song of deep love, and when he sings “the most natural thing I can do is put my arms around you”, it is aching, and the conclusion is dramatic with the synths rising.
Gothic Balladeer is a corker of a title, and references the Yazadis, the Kurdish group who suffered so much during the Islamic State “caliphate”, and my take on the words is a song about how reality can be twisted by perception, usually deliberately planted, but said balladeer is constant, telling us truths of the ages. Ross shines on this track, her work oozing sadness for the deaths of one or millions, each a tragedy, whilst Clark continues to provide the essential soundscape above The Captain’s core voice and guitar.
Older is reflective in only the way that life experience can bring, revisiting success and failure, and expressing surprise that he has made it thus far. I empathise with that. My two best friends were both lost to me in their early fifties, and I miss them dreadfully, whilst wondering how I escaped their fate, but that is what it is, the roll of the dice, and we shouldn’t reduce it to fairness, cruelty, or anything other than the way it is, and that is what I take as a personal meaning from this piece. The “older than the” sequence brings brightness to the thoughts, the closing words, though, disappearing into a void of nothing, and not even knowing that. Very clever and very good, it is embedded below.
A Joyful Disturbance follows, and it references Mamihlapinatapai, a word (it is South American) said to be amongst the hardest on our planet to translate, but said in that fine journal, Mr Wikipedia, to mean “a look that without words is shared by two people who want to initiate something, but that neither will start". You don’t get that on a typical Taylor Swift song, do you?! It must reference his beloved, with thoughts of ancient and modern mating or loving rituals, including the use of exotic pharmaceuticals, but the core is the abandonment of self to that essential bond between two people, something I have blissfully enjoyed these past twenty-four years. This is a gorgeous love song, voices and synths merging into a ritualistic celebration.
I think Vesper Flights might reference the work of the same name by Helen McDonald which is a transcendent collection of essays about our relationship with the natural world. This is as light a symphonic arrangement as you will hear, the keyboards and violin especially wistful and ghostly. The final minute is to these ears the core of an extended piece that should feature one day (if he was invited) to a BBC Proms concert.
The penultimate track is Neighbourhood, a piece about the contradictions of self sometimes, not born to be a stranger, but always feeling out of place, built not simply to take orders, but questioning everything that is asked, and the feeling sometimes that one is the only being in the neighbourhood. The whole song is yearning, some of the sounds being made orchestrally powerful, yet understated at the same time. A beautiful piece of music for our times and a true highlight of 2024. It is embedded below.
The title track closes proceedings, referencing again ancient Hebrew text and a Tibetan mountain at the roof of the sky, lyrically again pointing out so many contradictions of society, life, and self, beautiful ugly, about as decent a description of this crazy race I have ever heard, and musically, there is the sense of drama throughout, at times quite urgent and insistent, but also chorally bright and inviting.
An album which is highly recommended. A joy from start to finish.