Gil Scott-Heron
March 5, 2010I'm New Here
A succinct, genuinely poignant oeuvre of 28 minutes, American spoken-word artist, proto-rapper and vocalist Gil Scott-Heron’s first record in 15 years runs its course before you know it.
But, it’ll resonate in your thoughts for days. It’s a letter to the missing women of his life – his absent mother, his beloved grandmother – and a chronicle of loneliness and a life unnervingly close to death. I’m New Here is a profound rendering of fractured American existence. In gnarled voice, he speaks of isolation, trepidation and outright fear – the trials of the record’s spoken-word bookends On Coming From a Broken Home parts one and two – though what makes his account so transcendent is its rectitude.
Never once is Scott-Heron beholden to his demons. He puts up a fight. Among the brooding atmospheres of Your Soul and Mine, he speaks of the inevitability of “the vulture” of death, but promises a battle for his soul. His tone defiant, he walks with evil spirits over the doom-laden beats of Me and the Devil. On the elegiac piano ballad of I’ll Take Care of You, he extends a tender hand to a likeminded, damaged soul.
It’s magic stuff. Unlike many artists of his seniority, at 61 Scott-Heron has lost none of his edge. Aided wonderfully by the gritty production and musical direction of XL Records head Richard Russell, this is smoke-scarred, grimy and raw – a work of survival, reflection and importantly, unabashed honesty. By Dan Rule
REMOTE CONTROL/INERTIA
