I absolutely agree.
Here's what I write:-
Foxx triumphantThroughout the dark months from February to May, we have born witness to a trilogy of album releases by John Foxx that must rate among the most enlightening and imaginative work of his career.
As a collaborator, Foxx has to be among the most essential of artists to work with. He has the subtlety and judgement to know precisely how much of himself to give, and the intelligence and respect to recognise the depth of his partners ideas and the extent to which they can take his own in new directions and down unforeseen pathways.
Foxx once said that he wished there were time and opportunity for the Cocteaus to have recorded at The Garden. Well, good things come to those who wait, for they shall have eternal life. Perhaps Mirrorball is those sessions at last.
Four years in the making, and his third release of 2009,
Mirrorball has its roots back in the Twins 'Victorialand' heyday c1985, synchronising at the point where Foxx (V2) began to dissolve. Robin Guthrie's trademark reverb-soaked guitars create an expansive backdrop that is as beautiful as it is inventive. His phrasing and chord sequences defy logic, creating structures whose fragility is at the same time breath-taking, massive and fundamentally honest. Foxx wanders in and out of phase with this, slowly shifting his choral harmonics, Latinesque vocals and weaving an exquisite piano filigree. Neither artist has anything to prove, and the affinity is here and now - with no need to go anywhere else. It is ancient and modern, fact and myth - both one thing and another. The tracks radiate sympathetic warmth and mutual confidence, while at the same time preserving the unique qualities of each (immensely influential) composer.
For all its self-indulgent opulence, there is nothing grandiose about Mirrorball. It is natural and effortless, ethereal, exultant, tender, luxurious and decadent. Medieval in parts (The Perfect line, Spectroscope), Post-modern and neo-romantic in equal measure (Sunshower, Empire Skyline) - delicious beyond definition throughout (witness the stand out tracks Estrellita and My Life as An Echo). Above all, Mirrorball has shimmering
presence.
For ten years now, Foxx (V4) has proved a masterful alchemist of minimalism, delicacy and evocation. He may be the quiet man, a ghost in the shadows, but when he steps out, he is Luminous... few can be described as quite so visionary.
If this is what the first gleaming of twilight sounds like, let us bathe in the sunset's blaze.
© birdsong, May 2009
) and have to say it is a great album. Love it!
