The Academy In Peril cover

The Academy In Peril

Released

For someone who had a lot of truck with abrasive and strange music, Cale didn’t let himself go that far, not that often. This is the album where it sounds like nobody stopped him from doing anything at all, and it’s glorious. “The Philosopher” is one of the greatest things in his catalog, with an arrangement that combines a long, slow trombone part with bottle percussion and huge sound effects, and slide guitar (from Ron Wood???)? It’s also largely instrumental and seems to have no real outside influence beyond Cale himself. The orchestra on “Legs Larry at Television Centre” backs up Cale doing a sort of sketch monologue as a TV director, yet another title in Cale’s Dramatic Reading Library. Really makes me wish Cale had done more albums without singing! Sort of a diseased movie without images. I love this album.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Suggestions
Autobahn cover

Autobahn

Kraftwerk
Y in Dub cover

Y in Dub

Dennis Bovell, The Pop Group
Ghosted cover

Ghosted

Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin, Oren Ambarchi
Sort​\​Lave cover

Sort​\​Lave

Richard Devine
The Cherry Thing cover

The Cherry Thing

The Thing, Neneh Cherry
Substance cover

Substance

Moisture