Don’t be fooled by POPtical Illusion, the playful title of John Cale’s second album in just over a year. He remains angry, still incensed by the wilful destruction that unchecked capitalists and unrepentant conmen have hoisted upon the wonders of this world and the goodness of its people. The all-absorbing POPtical Illusion reinforces the feeling of MERCY, Cale’s much-lauded 2023 album that was as inquisitive as it was fierce.
Across a career of more than six decades, Cale’s vanguard-shaping enthusiasms have shifted among ecstatic classicism and unbound rock, classic songcraft and electronic reimagination with proud restlessness. Now, he burrows into mazes of synthesizers and samples, organs and pianos with words that constitute a sort of swirling hope, a sage insistence that change is yet possible. POPtical Illusion synthesizes contrasting emotions and enthusiasms into a dozen electronic playgrounds, Cale’s magisterial voice webbing across it all with puns and insights, grievances and quips, life and some version of truth.
John Cale has always been a musician of the times, helping to usher in titanic shifts in sound and culture. Once again, on POPtical Illusion, he looks at the orchestrated turmoil of recent history, furrows his brow in disgust, and then turns on his heels toward a future, even if he — like all of the rest of us, really — doesn’t know just what he’ll find or who exactly he’ll be there.