Reviews 1

Sponic - Issue: 12 - Album Review - Tim Murr - Songs For Swinging Lovers RATING: (4 ...5 logos is max rating) 2002 - Corrupt Records - CD , Former Avalanche/Ennui frontman, Philip Kane, releases his second solo album, following Media Gurls, for Corrupt. It's probably the smoothest soul album to come out since the '70s. At first listen, it's a sad slow dance that name checks Gloria Estefan, without being jokey about it. But a second spin reveals the album to be a bit darker, in line with Nick Cave. "Sally's Birthday" is just heartbreaking and cool. "Tonight" is flat-out fucking creepy, detailing a male-on-male rape. It opens with a Nick Cave-style spoken word before jumping into an R&B groove, which makes it just that much more disturbing.

The album continues to disintegrate; divorce rears it's ugly head in "After The Shipwreck." "Pearl Necklace," also about a failed relationship, brings to mind The Afghan Whigs. The album closes with the gospel soul of "A Million Kisses (Will Not Heal You)," which is reminiscent of Lou Reed's mid-70s albums. Actually, fans of Reed's Berlin will find "Songs For Swinging Lovers" to be one of the best soul rock albums since the dark king of the New York underground was at the height of his power. Be sure to check out Philip Kane

(Impactpress.com - Album Review - Kevin Mercer) Philip Kane . Songs for Swinging Lovers . Corrupt Records . Philip Kane has a really great voice. The thing is, I think my mom might like this one more than me. He croons like a young, witty Tom Jones with soul and passion. Some of the songs have some quite humorous lines and I really cracked a smile. The music, the voice, it just sounds too much like something I would hear in a cruise ship lounge.

(Uncut - February 2003 - Album Review - Chris Roberts) **** Philip Kane, Songs for Swinging Lovers, Corrupt - Former frontman of Avalanche and Ennui does it his way Scintillating citizen Kane is the first man to outrageously describe himself as 'Al Green singing Leonard Cohen' and find us all in total agreement.

Lyrically doomed and dextrous, musically flying from gospel to flamenco to feedback howls, and blessed with a magnetic white soul voice, Kane hails the potency of cheap music on 'Me, the ladyboy and Gloria Estefan' which concludes that Estefan understands that life is painful and ultimately futile. But there's nothing cheap about his novelistic range and ambition. Lovers drink, confess and break their arms in seven places, our hero beats himself up like a broodier Brel/Bukowski, and we're reminded that music can matter like murder.

A ragged, graceful revelation.

(The Big Takeover - Issue 51 - Album Review -Jack Rabid) Philip Kane
Songs for Swinging Lovers (Corrupt U.K.) - This former Ennui and
Avalanche frontman has been compared to everyone from Nick Cave and Jeff Buckley, to Otis Redding and Al Green. Indeed, Kane has a thick, soulful, and deeply expressive voice, often adding strange inflections for emphasis. His second solo LP is full of songs about heartbreak and failed relationships, of sordid, illicit affairs, and drunken, back-alley encounters in exotic locales from Bangkok to Barcelona. (In that respect, his appropriation of Frank Sinatra's 1956 album title takes on a more modern, literal meaning!) [You said it!!!

(Aiding & Abetting - Issue 234 - Album Review - Jon Worley) Philip Kane Songs for Swinging Lovers (Corrupt) - Imagine if Al Green sang Burt Bacharach. Philip Kane doesn't sing that well, but he does do a decent falsetto. And his jaunty 70s cheese-pop is nothing but buttuh. He plays this stuff straight (even though it sounds a bit silly at first), and in the end he won me over. A lot of fun.

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