Arthur Lyman “Love for Sale!”

That album cover! —you can almost feel the razor burn—and get a nose full of smellgood. Lifesize, closeup, in-focus, photo of… either Arthur Lyman or someone who looks even more like Arthur Lyman than Arthur Lyman—bigger than life! I was going to say the portrait photo is larger than human scale, but I measured his head—ten inches from chin to scalp—and then measured my own—the same! Also, his fingernails are the same size as mine—so I guess this is exactly life-size! And this is before photoshop, so you’ve got to hand it to his skin care team—just the proximity alone to whatever gel he’s got molding that black hair would be enough to get most people’s pores competing with the volcano eruptions pictured on the covers of many other Arthur Lyman records. People had guts back then—didn’t let a few nose hairs or out-of-control eyebrows bother them. I’m joking, but I find him quite attractive, and I’m sure, as well, did the many Arthur Lyman fans who fell in love with this, his 12th or so LP. After all, the record is called “Love for Sale!”—and there’s a theme going on—11 of the 12 songs have the word “love” in their titles. (One of the songs is called, “Love.”) The odd man out, then, is “Sentimental Journey.” Which makes me think of something.

On Pere Ubu’s 1978 debut LP, “The Modern Dance” (one of the best records of all time) there’s a song called “Sentimental Journey,” as well—it’s a great song. (Coincidentally, among the other songs on the record, none of them have the word “love” in their titles.) Was Arthur Lyman an influence on Pere Ubu? To me, it sounds like everything went through the Ubu influence grinder. But this imagines a direct exotica-to-Pere Ubu connection. Another thing to consider… the song “Sentimental Journey”—when lyrics are present—such as the Doris Day version—rhymes journey with “yearny.” But you won’t find that here. The only singing here is the jungle animal sound effects. Are there any exotica records with vocals? There must be, but I don’t know enough of them to be able to say for sure. I do have a few exotica records—and have had a few in the past that I lost—and I can/could put them on at any time, always enjoy them. But for all that, I don’t have any kind of sense who is my favorite—or which records are my favorites. I mean, it doesn’t all sound the same, of course, but I just haven’t gone into the exotica that deeply. I like this record as much as any I’ve heard, I guess. It’s not exactly stripped-down, but it’s also not overly busy, and there’s a lot of dynamics, and some really quiet, mellow moments. The band is a four-piece, and Arthur Lyman’s vibes are at the front of everything—occasionally getting really bizarre—going into outer space. Talking about outer space, the three paragraphs of uncredited liner notes are fine, but just subtly weird enough to make me feel like I’m on drugs. (I refuse to excerpt, sorry.) Or… if the drug thing is too harsh—maybe someone who is just learning a new language. What language? The language of love.

5.17.24