Album Review: Paul Morricone - "Cruel Designs"

 

Best known as the guitarist with Leeds psychedelic rockers the Scaramanga Six, this is Paul Morricone's second solo album and it's every bit as much of a dark and disturbing tour de force as those who are familiar with his day job band will expect.

The epic opener The Sequel deals with the unstable nature of capitalism and how you're always "only three pay cheques from a golden handshake with a twist". It doesn't lighten up any afterwards as well - the almost trip-hop style Demon Host is a look at the darkness at the heart of all humans and the half-spoken word Dreamfinder and the orchestral poison waltz of If I Could Remember My Dream and the almost disco-rock of Darkdance (another partly spoken-word number) all look at the nature of nightmares and your subconscious.

If J24M62 is a more wistful look at the mundanity of driving during rush hour and drifting off and thinking of other things then the notion of the more unpleasant parts of the subconscious is never too far from the surface with the nightmare visions of Under Your Hooves and Angular Face and the sinister sax-led Theme From Midnight Pharmacy all upping the creepiness factor to good effect before the more comforting Friendly Familiar Faces (about those rare good dreams) guides us back to a more safe haven to end the album.

Easy listening Cruel Designs very much isn't but there's definitely something about the sheer scope of it which makes it an engagingly dark listen with the mix of yearning vocals, lush orchestration and downright creepiness therein combining well to make something pretty good. Well worth a listen for those long dark nights of the soul.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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