Hip Replacement: "Friendly Fire" by Sean Lennon

Sean Lennon's new album, “Friendly Fire” is arguably the hippest thing I own. In my fifth month of New York City residency, not only did I buy this EP, I bought $135 jeans and decorated my apartment with nothing but framed black and white photos. So suffice to say I’m wearing the white Nikes. But anyways, back to the Beautiful Boy. It’s not his first album, but my hip friends tell me the ones preceding it don’t matter (which means they have to be REALLY bad because usually time makes things hipper). The title track is the single, and it’s well put together, but as an album “Friendly Fire” is kind of bland.

It’s not a bad album. On the contrary, I think the songwriting is complex but catchy, emotional but real, derivative but unique. It sounds good, it plays well in track sequence, and it definitely has an album-wide tone. But it’s just nothing I’m going to rave to all my friends about and obsess over. I never felt any connection to him. Which sucks because I want to. I am a rabid Beatles fan and since there is no new Beatles material, I figured he could fill that void. But he can’t; no one can. I know that but stupidly refuse to accept it.

Short of being the one to bring credibility back to politics and bringing sexy back (for real this time), being “the next Beatles” might be the most daunting thing anyone could be labeled. I mean look who has been called that over the years: Badfinger (because they were on the Fab Four’s record label), The Bay City Rollers (mind you Howard Cossell gave them that title), and Squeeze. Squeeze? Are you sure? “Tempted” is an alright song that is only popular because it can be played on both Top 40 and Classic Rock radio. “Pulling Muscles from a Shell” will always excite you when your driving a long distance with nothing but static and Five for Fighting playing across the dial, and you catch it from the beginning (which I always have. I honestly don’t know what it would sound like from halfway through the chorus. I can imagine not that good). But name one other Squeeze song. Name one Squeeze album. And name what decade they were from. That’s what I thought.

[“Is That Love”; “East Side Story”; late 70’s-early 80’s]

Returning to Sean, he may be John’s heir, and trust me the songs show the Lennon genetics (even without the Liverpudian brogue), but they are all missing something. The hooks are incomplete, the chord progressions regress into mediocrity, and the melodies are standard. Maybe he’s missing his McCartney, maybe he has too much Yoko in him, and maybe he just isn’t as good as his father. Maybe he doesn’t care. I hope he doesn’t care. That’s really the only way to silence critics and Beatle-maniacs like myself who rip into him for not being John enough. When if he were John v2.0, we’d rip into him for being predicable.

I'll tell you what the problem is also. I keep waiting for Dad's cameo. I can't get over it. On "Headlights" you hear a doubed over recording of Sean singing, and in a perfect world I know that Johnny Boy would be singing that backup if he was around. And I want it so badly. Unfortunately this isn’t a Marvel comic book, so we can’t see into an alternate reality on a mirror earth two galaxies away.

Do I recommend this album? Sure, go ahead and buy it if you have an iTunes giftcard. It’s musically good, but you’re going to listen to it through, give it the “it’s alright” because you don’t want to say it’s bad and seem uncool, and probably never listen to it again. If you’re anything like me, you will wait for the drumming of Ringo to kick in, which it doesn’t. You’ll comment on how the guitar solos (which are few and far between) sound a lot like something George recorded before he outsourced them to Eric Clapton. You’ll never get over how he sounds like John sans accent, and you wont listen to the songs as closely as a result. You’ll be amazed at how this one sounds like “Working Class Hero,” and that one has a hint of “Julia” and that slow one reminds you of “Yesterday,” which isn’t John’s song at all. And all the while you and Paul will have a quick chuckle at Jude.

The album obviously has the motherly influence of Yoko Ono woven throughout it. So here is a really theoretical and irrelevant question I’ll leave you with: would “Friendly Fire” sound different if he'd have had John around growing up, or if John hadn’t been shot, would John have soaked in more Yoko influence over the years, as would have Sean, and therefore this album would be the same?

Na nah nana.