Barry Adamson

Memento Mori (Anthology 1978-2018), is a 40th anniversary release charting the artist’s writing and recording career. It charts Adamson’s career from 1978’s Magazine track, “Parade” (co-written by Adamson, from their debut album Real Life); to his work as founding member, alongside Nick Cave, of the Bad Seeds (“From Her To Eternity,” co-written by Adamson); through his nine solo albums, from 1988’s Moss Side Story to the latest Love Sick Dick EPs, bringing everything up to date with a brand new unreleased track, “The Hummingbird.”

The Murky World of Barry Adamson collects the best of the former Bad Seed's solo recordings. Adamson's moody, filmic songs mix sex and menace with impenetrable cool, especially on "The Vibes Ain't Nothing But the Vibes" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes," both from his 1996 album Oedipus Schmoedipus. Along with selected tracks from every album from Moss Side Story to As Above, So Below, The Murky World of Barry Adamson also includes three previously unreleased tracks: "Walk the Last Mile," "Mitch & Andy," and "Saturn in the Summertime." Murky World is a delectable sampler of Adamson's dark musical talents.

Barry Adamson doesn't shy away from melodrama on Stranger on the Sofa, his ninth solo album. "Here in the Hole" is the kind of spoken-word narrative you either embrace or laugh at– there's no in-between. Over bursts of static and gyroscoping feedback that flits in and out of view like a searchlight pointed skyward, Anna Chancellor's brittle upper-crust English accent intones a weird sci-fi narrative stuffed with lines like "They believe I know everything because my master's memory serves me well/ In fact, I know nothing" and "I operate a program of self-denial, yet languish in polymorphous perversity as is my wont" and "I'm hunted for my flesh/ I'm hounded for my beauty."

Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus (1996)
Alternative Rock/Pop | MP3 | CBR 192 kbps | 55:33 | 85 MB

After some releases with more of a beat-heavy pop feel, Adamson moves back — sort of — into the land of noirish soundtrack. Unlike Moss Side Story, it's not really a soundtrack with repeated themes and motifs. A lot of pieces establish soundtrack-like moods, but the flow never builds up momentum of its own. As individual soundscapes, though, the tracks (largely instrumental) are reasonably impressive, whether it's burlesque-type fare, a takeoff on Miles Davis, or lounge jazz. If noir is what you want, "It's Business as Usual" is especially creepy, with its neurotic answering machine messages nearly buried under waves of disquieting sounds; achieving a similar effect; in an entirely different manner, is "Vermillion Kisses," a fairytale narrative with a morbid ending. Nick Cave adds a guest vocal to (and co-writes) "The Sweetest Embrace"; Pulp's Jarvis Cocker can be heard (and co-writes) another cut. Adamson's skill in layering and devising unusual sound textures still qualifies him as one of experimental rock's more imaginative composers and producers.

2024 ushers in a brand new Barry Adamson album entitled, ‘Cut To Black’. The album swaggeringly embraces Adamson’s trademark genre hopping compositions, covering Pop, Soul, Jazz, Hip Hop and Gospel.

The soundtrack to David Lynch's brilliant Lost Highway highlights the evocative gothic nightmares of producer Trent Reznor, whose Nine Inch Nails contribute the single "The Perfect Drug." Along with material from longtime Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti, the set also includes new music from the Smashing Pumpkins, Marilyn Manson and Lou Reed, who offers a taut cover of the Doc Pomus classic "This Magic Moment."