In Paul Quinn’s voice, melancholy and mania are close together; on “Phantoms & Archetypes” one, then the other unpleasant condition takes over.
One is reminded of Scott Walker’s more elegiac art songs, as well as Marc Almond’s darkest melodramas. For this album, Alan Horne reactivated Postcard Records, hired guitarist James Kirk, put Quinn’s old school friend Edwyn Collins in the producer’s chair and shelled out a lot of money for the studio recordings.
There was compensation for this, but only artistically. Paul Quinn portrays the betrayed, driven, and desperate in his own ballads that deny comfort, such as “Punk Rock Hotel,” but also in cover versions of such disparate songs as Vern Gosdin’s “Hangin’ On” and “Superstar” by the Carpenters, socially transferred into the shadow world of his Pop noir.
The record couldn’t be sold, Horne paid a lot for it and resisted re-release for a long time because the world didn’t deserve it. A defiant attitude that can only be reproached by the Scottish stubbornness if you don’t know about Horne’s other costly attempts in the 1990s to help Paul Quinn achieve his breakthrough. Vain.
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