Peter Perrett - The Cleansing
Staring deep into the darkness.
Peter Perrett’s most notable work was in the 1970s and 1980s with the band The Only Ones. Decades on, he returns with his third solo album The Cleansing. The album is presented to the listener with a black-and-white cover, depicting Perrett looking mournfully off to the side, his eyes covered by large, angular sunglasses. This cover is, in a way, a perfect representation for the way this album sounds.
When it comes to the instrumentals, this album feels like it draws from both Perrett’s new wave past, and also sounds like it’s going for elements of David Bowie or Muse. Vocally, Perrett’s low, scratchy, wistful vocals can’t help but be reminiscent of later Bob Dylan; his somewhat monotone, deep voice really contributes to the album’s dark atmosphere.
Above all else, The Cleansing is an album about leaving behind toxic habits and confronting death; the songwriting on the record is strong, with a lot of the lyrics being very dark and rather nihilistic. Despite this dark tone, the feeling that Perrett is getting a lot of enjoyment out of making these songs is also difficult to miss.
The instrumental work on the record is stunning, with some really well-composed musical passages on songs throughout the tracklist; the production is very good, too - the textures of each instrument are rich and voluminous, giving the music a really luxurious feeling despite the raw lyrical content.
However, despite having plenty going for it, The Cleansing does also have some flaws that are difficult to overlook. The main flaw is the length - this record did not at all need to be twenty songs long. A few of the stronger tracks on the project, like “Art Is A Disease” or “Less Than Nothing”, become more difficult to appreciate just because of how late they are in the hour of runtime this album has. If trimmed down to 12-13 songs, it would become significantly more engaging.
The main reason this record starts to drag after that amount of songs is the fact a lot of the tracks are much too slow and contemplative. It feels like some of the songs take too long to get going, and linger for too long on certain points. This also isn’t particularly helped by the nature of Perrett’s vocals, which inherently have a tendency to get old if they go on for too long due to the monotone quality to them.
Overall, The Cleansing is still an album worth checking out, because a lot of the songwriting, and frankly all of the instrumental work are quite impressive; however, it is held back a lot as an album experience by the bloat and insufficient dynamism and variety, especially in the vocal department.
6.5/10