Look what I found in the bargain bin

Sean Lennon
Into The Sun
(Capitol)

Price: RM10.00

Memories are cheap. Ten bucks for a few pieces on your lucky day. My lucky day was a Friday night, hunched over the discard pile with half a mind to gamble on the first thing that called out.

And out called Sean Lennon. I last held this cd in my hand as an 18-year-old, fascinated by the cover and seduced by both the idea of owning a new Lennon record and extending the arm of a Cibo Matto fixation. But I never bought the album. Undone by association, Sean’s record lacked the immediacy of the former and the eccentricism of the latter. But that was a long time ago. And that was 27 Aussie dollars.

But memories are indeed cheap, and I held in my hand for the second time this strange little forgotten disc. The cd inlay, with portraits sketched in colour pencil, reminded me of every artistic misadventure from a bygone youth. The lyrics – the godawful rhymes – recalled highschool poetry, written for girls who knew better. Sean, with his gawky threadbare vocal, could be any awkward boy.

There’s a lot to love here amid the fragile songsmithing, occasional bursts of distortion, right down to the odd nod to spacey electronica and bossa nova. I’ll be spinning this a lot from now on. Here's to a few inexpensive new memories.

Sean Lennon - Part One of the Cowboy Trilogy (from Into The Sun)