Kevin Ayers, "Decadence"

I'm leery of bringing up Kevin Ayers today since I know I'm not going to write about him much, but I'm too intoxicated by his music in this moment to not share something, so let's just listen to a tune or twelve of his now and put a pin in it, make it a point to return to him for a further exploration later on.

Long story short, though, he was another player from the Canterbury scene and first garnered attention as a founding member of the Soft Machine, though he only lasted one album with them.

All his solo LPs are pretty sweet, but I think it's Bananamour that I feel the most affection for today. It's gentle, sweet, though also mature and ambitious, a thoughtful, detailed, and assertive work.

"Decadence," a prog hypnosis that takes flight with Robert Fripp-esque guitar and a John Cale-y arrangement, is certainly the masterstroke on the album, however, and I wouldn't be bothered if the whole thing was nothing more than a thirty-minute-long study of it.