Since I was not going to be at home for the arrival of Simon Love’s second solo album ‘Sincerely, S. Love X’ I bugged him a few times trying to get a review copy. He never sent me one, of course.
So here we are, a belated review. Your own fucking fault, Simon!
First off, let’s be clear that we live in a second hand world where nothing is new. Melodic English pop records with quirky and funny lyrics have been done before by many artists, including Julian Cope, Kevin Ayers, and of course ultimately the Beatles.
Or maybe that last reference should be to the Rutles instead. Because everything here is painted in ironic colours. The sincerity of the album title is not only offset by Simon looking very snotty on the cover, but also sincerely tainted by expletives and a fair bit of vulgarities and smut throughout the album’s songs.
And although the subject matter of this album very much is Simon himself, it isn’t a rosy picture that we get. Opening song ‘God Bless The Dick Who Let You Go’ was allegedly written as a wedding present for his wife, and in ‘The Ballad of Simon Love’, the opening line is: “My name is Simon Love and I will never own a house.”
And that’s just two songs in.
In ‘Golden Boy’, one gets the feeling that Simon is singing about the artist that was his younger self and not liking what he sees:
“The sun shining out his arse / and lightning up everyone he meets.”
And on final track ‘Not If I See You First’ Simon conceitedly sings:
“But as the age old saying goes / you always hurt the one you love / I guess this means you must have loved me very much”
But the method here is all about the double negation. Out of the ugly dicking-about rises the beautiful swan. In a post-modern world where everything is a reference to something else and nothing is original, Simon’s irony is designed as a cleansing bath. Only after having been through that can we appreciate the honesty and passion when he sings:
“You’ve heard it all before / and so I know it’s nothing new / I fucking love you”
We fucking love you too, Simon. Please continue wearing your heart on your sleeve and make arrogant yet wildly wonderful pop records!
Popgruppen 