Album Review: Same Language, Different Worlds by Tim Burgess

Long before Tim Burgess and Peter Gordon made this album together, Burgess had been a fan of the the collaborations Gordon did for Arthur Russell when he was musical director of The Kitchen – a downtown Manhattan avant-garde performance space in the mid-Seventies famously associated with No Wave bands. The resulting work, and meeting of two minds who admire and compliment each others creativity, is something of rare, imaginative depth. The process started with Tim Burgess sending off melodic pop songs written on an acoustic to the wizardry Gordon, who returned them as something largely distinct from their original forms.

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Always much more experimental than his reputation as the Charlatans UK lead singer would suggest, Tim Burgess happily teamed up with avant-garde composer Peter Gordon in 2016 to record Same Language, Different Worlds. Gordon may have worked with Arthur Russell, a connection that certainly intrigued Burgess, but this album skews toward the Charlatans, containing songs that pulse to a distinct melody and that can also be overwhelmed by aggressive electronics. The mellifluous vocals and washes of texture wind up balancing each other a little bit too well: it's an alluring sound that seems attractive in the moment by disappears in the slipstream.

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A baggy and Britpop survivor and a venerable experimental composer don’t make natural bedfellows, which is precisely what makes the union of Charlatans singer Burgess and former Arthur Russell collaborator Gordon so beguiling. A leap out of their respective comfort zones has produced something really different. Opening track Begin, a New Order-esque electro melody with rattling drum machines, sails close to pop.

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