April 1998 (Creation/Columbia)

April 1998 (Creation/Columbia)

Recorded at Abbey Road in 1997

Go play safe, fly low,

for the sake of all you have known.

Throw your staff down from the citadel and run away.

He won't laugh at what you said he's got a princess to impress.

Got no boat, plane or place to go - just the rain.

And people move on, move along, people move on...

move along

There's a man that follows me down the street,

holding roses for all the girls he meets.

And his hair curls down to his feet

(he gives me the creeps).

He'll take the wind from your sails, quoting Jesus

- hands on the Kells.

But his words usually fail,

to move me that way.

People move on, move along, people move on...

just gotta keep moving on.

So go play safe, fly low,

for the sake of all you have known.

Throw your staff down from the citadel, and run away.

“This is about the time when I sold papers in Leicester Square. You see a lot of people walking by. You get snapshots, impressions, and snatches of conversation from homeless people, rugby fans going down the Hippodrome. You’d see a lot of these people later on that night in different states from earlier on. I’d be standing there with my walkman on just watching everybody”.(Bernard Butler to NME, April 1998)

Bernard Butler was born in 1970 in Stamford Hill, London. He grew up in a working class Anglo-Irish family, in the song above he describes the mood he was whilst doing his paper rounds as a teenager. He was listening to what became known as school disco music, and alternative music which was championed by the late John Peel programme on radio1. The first single he bought was on account of that programme, and started an admiration for music by The Smiths and a later musical friendship with Johnny Marr. Johnny Marr’s style on his trademark cherry red gibson owes as much to cross-over blues-folk bands like Pentangle as to Chic’s mixture of rock n roll and soul. Bernard joined Suede in 1991, after reading an advert in the Melody Maker signed by Brett looking for musicians who were into “The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Beatles and The Smiths – No musos”. Bernard found the reference about the Smiths as interesting as the “No Musos” bit. The band wanted to write and perform guitar pop songs spanning the range of “glam crunch” sound to singer-songwriting songs on piano.

Bernard after writing the music of first album Suede and the follow up Dog Man Star before left the band over musical differences revolving around the choice of producer. After that he played guitar with a few solo artists, notably Edwyn Collins, the former lead singer of Orange Juice, who shares with Bernard an admiration for rock n roll and soul, and the song structure. His first proper album was recorded under the band name McAlmont&Butler with singer David McAlmont and drummer Mako Sakamoto, producer Nigel Godrich and was called “The sound of McAlmont&Butler” (1995). As David McAlmont aptly put it in 2002 the music can be best called “Rock n roll soup”. It is a mixture between reflective singer-songwriting material and sweeping pop music backed by orchestra, reminding us of material by Phil Spector.

“With people move on” Bernard Butler takes on vocal duties, and here again, there are introspective singer-songwriter songs next to sweeping rock n roll soup full orchestra arrangements. Some reviewers have accused the album of being incoherent and Bernard’s voice not to be strong enough to carry some songs. If we take the approach that this is a album with songs that could all be singles, and that Bernard is a John Peel kid, then both comments make a positive sense. This is a record which has its roots in ambitious alternative pop/rockn roll. There is no need to write concept albums, or perhaps there is an ambition to write an album with no fillers. This album reminds me sometimes of Edwyn Collins’ work on "Gorgeous George" who also likes to write his songs on acoustic and write a version of them with orchestra. Bernard shows that in order to sing soulful songs you don’t necessarily need what some radio station call “a blue eyed soul voice” or a croon. This is an approach which can be found in Elvis Costello’s works, like Bernard, Elvis Costello also has an admiration for Elvis Presley. All this places “People move on” in its time, the nineties, and it sounds fresh, innovative and accessible. The lyrics are as introspective as proof of social observation. The choice of antequated vocabulary can be found in many songs by the Smiths and I also remember Bernard’s interest with history. A mixture of musical influences and originality, this is a well-rounded ambitious alternative guitar-pop record with a lot of soul.

People Move On suffers from a problem common to solo albums — now that the artist is freed from the confines of his group, he is compelled to show that he can do it all on his own. Since Bernard Butler has always traded in major statements, this flaw hurts him less than others, but it still prevents People Move On from being the tour de force it was intended to be. Part of the problem is Butler's thin, wispy voice, which often sounds like it's straining to hit the notes. On the gentle acoustic numbers, it can be convincing, but it hardly sells the sweeping, cinematic songs. "Woman I Know," "You Just Know," "Not Alone" and "Stay" are so busy they barely make sense. All the overdubbed backing vocals, keyboards and guitars sound disassociated from each other, adding up to awkward attempts at grand statements that fall flat. He's much better at the quieter moments, such as "You've Got What It Takes" and "You Light the Fire." These moments of introspection are what give People Move On weight, and what make it a promising solo debut.

NME put a tape together with some of the songs recorded during an acoustic performance in April 1998. It is called “Bernard Butler the garage tapes” – and it gave Bernard the chance to introduce himself and his new album:

“The thing is with those shows is that no-one in the audience knew how the album sounded, so this was their first indication. It’s not some folky thing, it’s just how the record was written and I want people to see these songs in a different light. “By playing them acoustically, people get to feel the intimacy of the songs and it's a good opportunity for me to train my voice. How the songs appear on the NME tape is how the songs were written – just me and an acoustic guitar. But it’s only the first stage. I’ve been putting a band together, and I’m very excited about it. Where “Yes” and the McAlmont stuff was all written at home with a multi-track with everything sorted in advance, the songs on people move on were just done at home with an acoustic guitar. That way it gave me more time to spend on singing and working out the lyrics. The arrangements and everything else came in the studio. “When woman I know” is played acoustically it’s got a country feel, but on the record it’s really different. I could go out on the road and do it with a gospel choir.

“Stay” … like “People move on” is about change. The process of change is hard when you’ve got to do it. It’s about when you know you’ve got to do something but there’s an element of risk….

Allmusic.com is a website that likes describing moods of albums, and here are their suggestions and later, a review by Thomas Erlewine.

Ambitious Elaborate Yearning Searching Lush Reflective Wistful Sweet Rollicking Trippy Laid-Back/ Mellow Amiable/ Good-Natured Sophisticated Earnest Melancholy Reverent Guitar

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine for allmusic.com

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