More than anything Julian Lennon had done, Everything Changes confronted his father, and his father’s legacy – both musically and personally. In keeping with such an interior concept, the songs were quietly determined, rarely loud. No surprise, really, to find out the album was principally recorded in a home studio.
That delicate fragility, when it gave way at all, only rose to a kind of broken-hearted certitude – as on “Lookin 4 Luv,” a lead single that sounded like a mash up between John Lennon’s anguished cries in “Help” and the smooth orchestral power pop of the Electric Light Orchestra. “Just For You” billowed up for a tough-minded chorus, but quickly settled back into a mid-tempo contemplation on waiting for answers, and for love, and finding none. It’s a theme that’s familiar to anyone who followed the elder Lennon’s sometimes harrowing journey toward contentment.
“Invisible,” maybe the album’s best track, juxtaposed an incendiary lyric that questions our capacity for change with a caramelized vocal interplay that likely had George Martin nodding with a knowing pride. “Never Let You Go” hinted at the drone-pop of Sgt. Pepper’s-era Fab Four, but with an urbane pop sheen. Then there’s the album-closing “Beautiful,” this elegiac anthem in which Julian seems to be addressing the loss of his dad, and what he meant not just to the younger Lennon but to the world.
Attentive fans could see Julian Lennon building toward this. He issued a benefit four-song EP in December 2009 called Lucy, in memory of Lennon’s childhood friend Lucy Vodden – the inspiration via a painting done by Julian at age 4 for the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” Vodden died in ’09 after battling the immune-system disease lupus. Some of the proceeds from the EP were donated to lupus research.
In fact, Lennon spent the bulk of the decade before doing philanthropic work, while also delving into art, photography and documentary filmmaking. His “Whaledreamers” project won eight awards for best international documentary film.
But Lennon said he never really let go of music. He ended up constructing a home studio in the middle of the decade before Everything Changes arrived on Oct. 2, 2011, and composed as many as 30 songs before whittling them down to the 12 presented here. Along the way, there clearly followed a belated acknowledgement of the truth we all know: Julian can, and often does, sound something like his father – not just vocally, but also in the melodic construction of the songs themselves.
Admitting it doesn’t capitulate to a stricken fanbase’s fruitless attempts to regain a piece, any small piece, of a murdered hero. It is, quite simply, who Julian Lennon is. To deny that is to deny the very blood running through his veins. Moreover, it’s not all that unusual for someone of Julian’s generation – he was rounding toward 50 then – to be influenced by the Beatles. If he can’t share in that, and celebrate it, then who can?
Accepting these things, as much as squaring up his own tortured relationship with a dad gone absent in the midst of Beatlemania, seemed to have given Julian Lennon a great measure of peace. This considered and long-awaited album, Lennon’s first full-length project since 1998’s Photograph Smile, was better for it, too. Everything Changes emerged as the most assured release yet from this underrated pop melodist.
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I’ve tried listening to this multiple times. It’s just boring.
And a measure of peace? Then why did he spend the last week or two moaning on Facebook about not getting invited to Beatles events or to McCartney’s wedding?
Bizarre behavior. Why he expected to be invited to the third wedding of someone he barely sees anymore is anyone’s guess. Why he thought he should be included in Beatles events is also anyone’s guess. None of Paul’s or Ringo’s kids attend, and the only two kids who do attend the events Julian cited were the widows’ sons escording their mothers.
But this public tantrum — designed, no doubt, to attract attention and boost his record sales — undermines the the peace he claims to have found on the album.
Ey Mr. Al!
I decided to be member of these web page just to say something to you! I can´t believe you say “boring” to describe this incredible collection of songs of the album “Everything changes”. I´m sure you have in your i-pod a lot of stuff from Justin Bieber, Mili Vanily, Lady Gaga or something like that!
About the time that Julian spend in facebook is very good, always posting human and very interesting material. .You also wrote: “…not getting invited to Beatles events or to McCartney’s wedding?”. Did you really red about Julian Lennon? All the time, the journalists ask the same, again and again: “What about your father? What about the beatle´s influencies?”. So, please, Al, before leave your horribles opinions, first try to learn something about music and how to listen…
An Excellent informed review by DeRiso!
To Al- There is a certain “sameness” to all the songs yet it seems intentional and to me gives a wholeness and unity to the album. I had to laugh when I read the last line of your comment as I too had the same reaction that perhaps this “snub” business could be all about publicity.
See my “review in progress at kelcreative.blogspot.com
How about we focus on the music more than what happened in the press? I don’t know about Julian’s album being about peace as much as touching certain themes about life. I love the song Everything Changes because it means a person does grow and they aren’t always in the same mindset. Lookin’ 4 Luv is pretty. But Touch The Sky, Always, Just For You, and Beautiful are my favorites on the album.
He wrote Beautiful for his dad. Perhaps his love and feelings for his DAD are the things he is most at peace with. I think that’s what I get from this album, in terms of relating it to John in any way.