Sean Lennon Friendly Fire CD

This CD/DVD set includes a cinematic suite of songs which share the same dizzying wealth of musical styles as its predecessor Friendly Fire, but eschews some of its freeform tendencies for more traditional song structure and some unifying themes. The DVD includes a short film for each of the album's tracks, directed by Michele Civetta. The fantastical shorts feature appearances from Lennon and friends including Lindsay Lohan, Bijou Phillips, Asia Argento, Carrie Fisher, Devon Aoki, Jordana Brewster, and others.

Personnel: Sean Lennon (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, drums); Sean Lennon (bass guitar); Josh Brion (guitar, organ, bass guitar, drums); Jon Brion (guitar, organ, drums); Yuka Honda (piano, keyboards, bass guitar); Greg Kirstin (organ); Sebastian Steinberg (bass guitar); Athena LeGrand (background vocals); Harper Simon (guitar); Jim Keltner, Matt Chamberlain (drums); Bijou Phillips (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Tom Biller.
Illustrator: Sean Lennon.
On his second album--released eight years after the well received INTO THE SUN--Sean Lennon displays a talent for memorable tunes and varied arrangements that create a surprising amount of momentum despite the overall mid-tempo mellowness. Moods shift gently from the unhurried, synth-driven "Parachute" (which echoes Radiohead) to the ragged folk-rock of "Headlights," with its killer off-kilter chord progression, to the haunting "Spectacle," which makes surprisingly subtle use of a string section and Hammond organ. In the eight years between albums, Lennon's voice matured into an expressive instrument capable of nuanced crooning as well as more straight-ahead piano-pop balladry. His songcraft also shows a leap in sophistication, as demonstrated on "Friendly Fire," whose compelling, ascendant melody gives way to a powerful full-band chorus. The second disc of the set contains videos for each song on the album, rendered with as much sensitivity and creativity as the music.
Eight years is a long, long time between albums. It's a luxury few artists can afford -- either in terms of their career or in terms of their pocketbook -- but Sean Lennon is one who can, largely because he's the son of rock royalty, which ensures that he has the cash and public profile to take his time between projects. And he certainly did take his time after the release of his 1998 debut, Into the Sun, touring with Cibo Matto while he was dating their keyboardist, Yuka Honda, then just fading away into the New York socialite/artist scene after the turn of the millennium. He would pop up on-stage on occasion -- sometimes with Paul Simon's son Harper, sometimes with his mother, Yoko Ono, sometimes with Vincent Gallo -- but for the most part he kept a low profile (at least as far the rest of the U.S. outside of N.Y.C. was concerned) until 2006, when his sophomore effort, Friendly Fire, was finally released. More than anything, it sounds like a record that was made with no sense of urgency whatsoever. Its lazy cascade of gently plucked acoustic guitars, vaguely baroque keyboards, echoey guitars, breathy harmonies, and liberal borrowings from psychedelic Beatles and Beach Boys sounds as if its been mildly tinkered with over the years, a little bit added here, an overdub there, until it eventually was done. Sonically, it's not far removed from Into the Sun; it's only not as cheery in spirit as that debut, and Lennon explained the reason why in the publicity surrounding the release of Friendly Fire. The songs are inspired by a romantic catastrophe of his: his girlfriend slept with his best friend, thereby precipitating a breakup and a falling out, and the friend died in a motorcycle accident before Lennon could patch things up with him. Sad stuff, no doubt, and knowledge of the tale lends resonance to the album's title, yet the incessant repetition of the story in the press leaves a ghoulish aftertaste -- particularly since the incident happened years ago (also, knowing that the girlfriend wRolling Stone (p.68) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "His viola-toned voice, with its patient, Brazilian-like delivery, is sweet and distinctive."
Rolling Stone (p.108) - Ranked #41 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "Sean's boyish, nasally voice is a near-spittin' image of his dad's RUBBER SOUL-ballad croon."
Spin (p.102) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] nicely textured album of wistful waltzes, rainy-day ballads, and pinwheel pop tunes."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.104) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] comes on like a more lovelorn REVOLVER, its carefully crafted songs packing stately strings, Ringo-esque drum fills and a melodic potency and chordal know-how that requires little embellishment."