A Blues for Buddha

Description

A Blues for Buddha is the sophomore album by the British alternative pop/rock band The Silencers, released on RCA in 1988. The album was recorded April – August 1988 at Ca. Va. Studios in Glasgow, Scotland; with Flood (Mark Ellis) and the band producing. Mixed by Neil Dorfsman (tracks: A1, A3, A5, B1) and The Silencers (tracks: A4, B3, B5).

Although this follow-up to ’87’s debut, A Letter From St. Paul, was recorded in 1988, it just got to us early this year. And, even without a compelling follow-up single to match «I See Red» and «Painted Moon», Blues for Buddah delivers a set of engaging songs of spiritual hunger, real-life wonderings and the struggle to bring both together. Often the Silencers – Jimmie O’Neill on vocals, guitar and harmonica, Cha Burns on guitar and harmonies, Martin Hanlin on bass and Joseph Donnelly on drums – in a move not far from classic Celtic pop tradition (read: Van Morrison, U2, and fellow Scots [with some Irish lads], the Waterboys) blead the longing for relational fullfillment and desire for God into universal poetic visions, as in «Walk With the Night», where they seek to “Talk to the angels above.”

In the title track, a commentary on the Middle East’s “holy wars,” «Razor Blades of Love», a song of inner loneliness and near-suicidal angst, «Skin Game», which deals with the futility of the flesh – mindless sex and racist ideas, the Silencers are crying out for someone to «Answer Me». What they’ve found is expressed in the traditional spiritual blues of «Wayfaring Stranger», the presence behind nature of «Sand and Stars», and the identity that comes to a «Sacred Child». In French and then English O’Neill sings, “Et Je suis enfant de la Guerre/ Well I’m a lonesome boy/ Poor boy/ Et Je suis le roi des voleurs/ Well I’m a sacred child/ Sun Child.”

“The only thing the blues is afraid of is the pipes,” the Silencers suggest in the album notes. Here they take another honest look at life and faith and find myriad shades of blue. I had hoped for more, but then I still tend to see red from time to time. [Brian Q. Newcomb, Harvest Rock Syndicate, Volume 5, Issue 2, 1990]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/ca/album/a-blues-for-buddha/1269569842)

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Answer Me” – 4:56
A2. “Scottish Rain” – 7:10
A3. “The Real Mc Coy” – 6:03
A4. “A Blues For Buddha” – 3:00
A5. “Walk With The Night” – 5:29

Side Two
B1. “Razor Blades Of Love” – 4:57
B2. “Skin Games” – 5:48
B3. “Wayfaring Stranger” – 3:10
B4. “Sacred Child” – 7:32
B5. “Sand And Stars” – 1:30

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD by RCA.

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