Elvis Perkins – In Dearland

Elvis Perkins - In Dearland

Anthony Perkins, most famous for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, was a self-proclaimed bisexual and reportedly only had same-sex relationships until his mid-30′s when he married Life magazine photographer and female model Berry Berenson.

Perkins died from complications with AIDS in 1992 and his wife, then widow, was killed on American Airline Flight 11 during the September 11th attacks on New York in 2001. An extraordinary start to life, then, for their second son Elvis Perkins, who became a musician and recorded an extraordinary album for XL Recordings in 2007. ‘Ash Wednesday’ bristled with refreshingly piquant songwriting in an arcadian style slightly more tender than The Decemberists or the Arcade Fire. Although written in response to his mother’s death, it was more a triumph of hope in general and of gentle, clipped surrealism.

The album’s lyrics avoided drawing directly from his experiences growing up and of 9/11, and instead plundered the realm of parental love and explored some of life’s subtler moments. It is with slight regret, therefore, to discover that this extraordinary individual has followed that sublime debut with a rather ordinary follow-up. As much of a cliche as it is, this is a prime example of difficult-second-album syndrome.

As is so often the case, two years was never going to be long enough to accumulate enough solid material to match that of its predecessor, which seemed brimming with fully-fledged, well matured ideas in comparison. The disc starts strongly enough, with ‘Shampoo’ emerging in a plume of organ and captivating with its darkly bittersweet rhythm and off-kilter vocal melody. But the quality of the songwriting soon dries up, the Civil War marching band nonsense of ‘Doomsday’ providing a particular low point.

‘I’ll Be Arriving’ sees Perkins mistakenly attempt a gnarled, angular guitar dirge and ‘Chains, Chains, Chains’ painfully reminds singer-songwriter fans of the later albums of the now terminally-rubbish Tom McRae. Anthony Perkins kept returning to the Psycho franchise throughout his career, noticing perhaps that he could never do better. It can only be hoped that his talented troubadour son, with his ability to claw masterfully at the heart strings, hasn’t already hit his peak.

No related posts.