In an effort to keep the buzz going for his upcoming new album, POPtical Illusion, due on June 14, John Cale has released a new dance-punk single, “Shark-Shark,” along with a decidedly entertaining video to accompany the song.
Yes, you read that descriptor correctly: “dance-punk.” How else to describe a song with a throbbing beat that also features a shredding guitar solo?
“Sometimes you write a song purely for a mood,” Cale said in a statement. “‘Shark-Shark’ has two versions - both a nod to finding humor in music. When you’re feeling too much of the real world, the best diversion is something that puts a grin on your face. I don’t know how [director Abby Portner] and team kept this shoot together - being ‘unserious’ was a lot of fun!”
John Cale wrote over 80 songs during the pandemic, realizing that he was living and working through something that many of his past contemporaries weren’t.
“When I first heard this song the first thing that struck me was this vibe of gentle chaos, a chaos that's not dangerous but a playfulness that happens at a sleepover party or in an '80s comedy," Portner said in the press release. "I was in Oslo last summer with John and I had taken a bunch of pictures of the band in the National Museum standing in the hall of busts, looking very stark and cold. This idea popped into my head of what if the chaos in this song was sculptures coming to life and breaking all the rules! The concept of taking something like the National Museum or Swan Lake and having the art itself turn it upside down seemed fitting for this song.”
Cale's previous album, Mercy, came out in 2023, but prior to that, he hadn't released a new LP in a decade. When initially announcing the impending release of POPtical Illusion, Cale acknowledged that he found considerable inspiration in the pandemic, "realizing that, nearing 80, he was living and working through something that many of his past contemporaries weren’t."
That said, this new album isn't just an odds-and-sods collective of leftovers. Fans are promised "the same feelings of fierce and inquisitive rage" found on the aforementioned Mercy, assuring listeners that Cale "remains angry, still incensed by the willful destruction that unchecked capitalists and unrepentant conmen have hoisted upon the wonders of this world and the goodness of its people," while also promising that "this is not at all Mercy II, or some collection of castoffs."
As noted earlier, POPtical Illusion will be released on June 14, and it will be available on 2xLP, CD, and digitally. The Domino Mart pink & mint vinyl 2xLP edition pressing of 1000 includes a 7" featuring 2 exclusive tracks, and a POPitem – a limited edition illusionary twirling paper Objet.
POPtical Illusion Tracklist
1. God Made Me Do It (don’t ask me again)
2. Davies and Wales
3. Calling You Out
4. Edge of Reason
5. I’m Angry
6. How We See The Light
7. Company Commander
8. Setting Fires
9. Shark-Shark
10. Funkball the Brewster
11. All To the Good
12. Laughing In My Sleep
13. There Will Be No River
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