Retro Spins: Julian Lennon - Valotte

Julian Lennon
Valotte
1984

Lyrically, Valotte isn't all that impressive. Rather, where it shines is in the excellent instrumentation from song to song. No two songs sound alike and they feel masterfully crafted by artists who have honed their skills of various instruments - It almost feels experimental at times. Am I making sense here? Probably not.

It's interesting to hear Julian's voice. Interesting in a good way. At times he can sound like his father (most notably on tracks Valotte and Too Late for Goodbyes). Others he sounds almost like Elton John (On the Phone). Then there are times where he sounds...Well, like Julian - Having a voice of his own. I dare say it's an opportunity for folks to hear what The Beatles could have sounded like had they continued on into the 80's.

Though his pops was eating up the charts himself in 1984. Julian found his own hits in October of that same year when Valotte charted in the mid sixties. The song made its way to the top ten by the end of the year and though it made it to the number nine spot in January of the following year began falling off the charts from there. However, January also brought with it the debut of his second hit, Too Late for Goodbyes. The song soared all the way up to the number five spot before drifting back down the charts.

By April, Julian's third single, Say You're Wrong charted at number fifty-four. Unfortunately, this track only made it to the number twenty-one spot before falling back down and eventually off the charts. Julian wasn't done though. In August of that same year, Jesse hit the charts at the number seventy-five spot. Sadly, by the following week it was gone. Admittedly out of the four tracks noted it's the weakest one.

Having just recently obtained this album, this was actually the first time I'd heard anything beyond Too Late for Goodybyes. Like I mentioned above, one of the things that stands out is how different each track sounds from each other. It makes for a really nice mix to the ears. As for stand out tracks? Well, I only actually ended up pulling all four of the chart toppers from it. However, I will say I did so prior to finding out they were the four tracks which hit the charts. So this was actually more so coincidental than anything. Still, I wouldn't hate listening to the whole album again. The remaining tracks weren't bad. They just weren't as good as the four I pulled.

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