Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By The Legendary Tigerman, Dirty Water Records 2018.
The Legendary Tigerman, aka Paolo Furtado, is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, artist and film maker from Portugal who has produced an album and film about his personal journey of self-discovery.
On a 12-day road trip from Los Angeles to Death Valley Furtado immersed himself in the skin of the philosophically disturbed protagonist of his own story.
Each day he would rise, drive, scribe, and by night, armed only with his guitar and the solitude of the motel room, he would pen the songs that would eventually make Misfit, the album and movie.
The album was recorded at the famous Rancho de Luna studio in Joshua Tree, California, (the studio where U2 recorded their album of the same name).
This is The Legendary Tigerman’s sixth album and most critics believe it’s his best but for me it’s the first of his that I’ve heard.
The album follows a trek through the desert by his protagonist in a self-revelatory search for meaning in a society of drifting alienation.
The protagonist wants to be heard, to be noticed, validated and loved but in the process he ends up finding a form of living non-existence.
The album is also a journey through the history of many modern musical forms from rock, through blues and punk, and even into stoner and psychedelia.
I often find film-score albums have difficulty standing by themselves without the visual imagery to support them but, in this case, because the film and album have been developed together the album works perfectly well on its own.
In a way, the film is about the making of the album, but it could also be viewed the other way around.
The songs vary from the full-on rock of Motorcycle Boy through to the experimental grunginess of True to the indie folk of Holy Muse.
In each case they are buzzing with energy and inventiveness.
Very interesting and innovative.
