Search - Stuart Davis :: Nomen Est Numen

Best Stuart Davis CD

savagesal | Round Hill, VA United States | 12/01/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This one is my favorite of Stu's CDs, perhaps because it really runs the gamut on topics & styles & paces. Atavistic Viking rocks--go get your dictionary if you don't know the word... and leave it open! Davis uses BIG WORDS (gosh forbid!) that do the job just right. I don't know how his tongue twister lyrics make it out okay, but he's a genius. Sure, he touches on taboo subjects (lusting after platonic friends, feeling more comfy with the devil than the angel, playing with a Barbie doll, raping and pillaging in the name of one's ancestry), but he does it so WELL! (Tell me you haven't thought about the same things yourself...!) Stephen's Exhibition was the song that sold me, the first time I heard it (live) after a week-long artist (poetry) workshop. I sat at a table with 3 or 4 world-class writers only to hear Davis sing the old lament of the poet/writer/artist (good or not): "Well, we artistic types are so misunderstood/everyone's a critic, they don't know when something's good/Just letus have our space and freedom to create/and when the work is finished, we'll tell you if it's great." I nearly rolled on the floor, though I wondered if anyone else had made out the lyrics. But even the somber/sober songs strike a chord; Guardians means a lot to anyone who's ever lost (or nearly lost) a family member--after all, our nuclear family, however disfunctional, is our starting place, the organism that created and identifies us, like it or not. And nearly always the source of as-close-to-unconditional love as we ever get (til we have our own kids)."