Friday, December 19, 2008

The Best Albums Of 2008 #11


Chris Connelly-Forgiveness & Exile

2008 was an amazing year for former Revolting Cocks frontman Chris Connelly. Earlier this year, an autobiography chronicling his years in the late 80’s Chicago industrial rock scene, Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible, And Fried: My Life As A Revolting Cock, closed a huge chapter of his life with grace and humor. The end of the year saw a new solo record from the Scotsman, Forgiveness & Exile. It’s an album that takes his chamber pop-meets-David Bowie solo style and adds a layer of drama that’s both welcome and unexpected.

Forgiveness & Exile has a disturbing intensity to it that’s reminiscent of Scott Walker’s Tilt. It is, by turns, frightening, insightful, and horrifying. The musical unease is punctuated by Connelly’s wailing cries and passages of poetry read by a pair of special guests, actress Torri Higginson and Garbage singer Shirley Manson. Connelly wrote Forgiveness & Exile as a meditation on war and torture (Coincidentally, all proceeds from the album go to the Marjorie Kovler Center for victims of torture.) and it’s a record that’s both impacting and thoughtful.

Listen to “Arran” from Forgiveness & Exile on Last.fm.

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