For me, it is difficult to weigh the importance of a new Planet P album. After releasing two seminal CDs in 1983-84 (Planet P Project and Pink World), it was another 20 years before 1931 (Go Out Dancing Part 1) arrived. Where the first two CDs were major influences on my personal interest in music as an impressionable teen, 1931 found both myself and the Planet P living on a different planet and in a different stage of life, albeit no less profound.

For me, Pink World was the CD (record, actually) that I lent people when I wanted to hit them over the head with something amazing, something they'd never heard before, something with Substance. I'd let them immerse themselves in the marvelous concept piece and then reveal that the entire thing-- vocals, instruments, lyrics-- was all the work of one man.

Tony Carey has released some 15+ solo albums since his departure from Rainbow in 1977, and Levittown is the 4th official Planet P Project release. You may recall his 80s solo hit A Fine, Fine Day, or another early single I Won't Be Home Tonight. Planet P was originally conceived as an outlet to explore concepts that did not neatly fit into Carey's solo work. Where the latter is generally singer-songwriter fare, the Planet P tunes which began as sci-fi prog for a post-Pink Floyd era, eventually became a more pronounced socio-political commentary (as Carey presumably realized that fact was even more interesting/ scary than fiction), and that is where we arrive in Levittown.

So now, sitting here with Planet P's fourth album in 25 years, part 2 of a planned trilogy, one is tempted to spend a month or so before even trying deconstruct this into an objective review. But we're in Internet time right now, and it is simply unacceptable to listen to music the way we once had the luxury of doing. But it's been four listens now, about the maximum I end up listening to anything in this era of instantly downloadable box sets, and I think there's a little I can say about it.

Levittown opens by setting the theme- Carey describes the concept in a brief spoken word introduction. He explains Levittown as the invention of Bill Levitt, who in 1946 wanted to provide cheap and affordable housing to returning veterans. "Houses that were all the same. All white enclaves of conformity and uniformity." It was around this time that the McDonalds and Holiday Inns of the world all struck upon the same idea, and the ticky-tacky future America that we have lived into was born. But the real theme here is actually an even larger canvas-- the secret history of one of America's greatest products-- FEAR-- from 1946 to present. Yeah, this ain't gonna fly on Clear Channel.

The energetic The New Frontier opens the musical portion of Part 2, and we quickly recognize the classic Planet P elements: the poignant lyrics, layered instruments, catchy choruses, synth-filtered backing vocals and that characteristic voice. When Carey utters "Fight it-- just hold on to someone close to you-- there's something very very wrong around here", we recognize this as an indictment of the last 60 years of the American Dream Gone Wrong. And it goes on to point a finger at some conspiracy theories that anchor one the CD's core convictions-- that all is not what it seems in the US, and hasn't been for some time. The title track Levittown extends the concept-- "We're gonna live in Levittown, we're gonna make it in Levittown... we're so happy we could scream, it's the American Dream." The track closes with a classic and delicious guitar solo, as a bridge towards the present.

Things do not improve in White Sands, told from the perspective of a Nazi scientist who travels to the US to work on Kennedy's space program (reference the little known Operation Paperclip). Carey opens the track with the spoken accusation, "Pontius Pilate had less blood on his hands than these guys." It is a brooding, haunting track that again positions our history in a slightly different context than the high school textbooks. Saw A Satellite follows, and is very much the heart and soul of Levittown. Told from the perspective of a young boy, it targets the lost innocence and deception upon which the hopes of that generation were grounded.

I saw a satellite
watched it fly by
saw everything change tonight
from a hundred miles high
I went off to school, along with the others
to learn how to think the American way
they shot down the man, shot down his brother
and good doctor king he met jimmy earl ray.

In Babylon is one of several musical highlights. The closest to "dance" that Go Out Dancing gets, it is a soaring big beat slice of rock and roll. Lyrically we're, well "it's just another night in babylon, another piece of freedom's gone," and we're starting to touch on more modern times. It is the first reference to Iraq, and I suspect Go Out Dancing Part 3 will spend a fair bit of time on that oil field battleground. The track Waiting For You is a reference to Carey's nephew, currently serving in Iraq.

Fremont Street is the musical high point for me, and Carey's recent electronica influences are evident here. Hoover Dam, Hollywood, and Las Vegas-- "Sometimes you get a little crazy from there heat, the drinks are free you get a little wobbly on your feet, and even though you've got a system that can't be beat... you leave your money on the table, on Fremont Street." The track feels like the culmination of all of Carey's solo work and Planet P efforts all tucked neatly into one six minute track. It is sublime.

"If you want to distract somebody from the truth, you tell the big lie. You find a common enemy. It's been done before. Still works, doesn't it?" Where We Want You takes us to the present. Post-9/11 fear, bird flu, global warming all fight for time on the crowded stage of orchestrated fear and, as the lyrics so concisely summarize, "We've got you where we want you..."

I'm not quite sure whether "What We Did" is a reference to a possible past or a possible future. Whether it is a metaphor or just a possible place that fear ultimately takes us. In either case, somewhere amidst its cathartic guitar and rising vocals, it paints a pretty grim picture.

I guess you know by now
things got out of hand somehow
duck and cover did not pass the test
I did the job they gave to me
punched in the codes, turned the key
you could feel the rumble
all the way down to your bones
I don't know where mine were aimed
you never know that kind of thing
but east of the jordan river
no one answers the phone
and what we did
we did because god told us to.

The concept of "Go Out Dancing" is a reference to the cold war, a time when we once felt it inevitable that someone was going to let one of those bombs fly, or some horrible accident would bring it all down. But the reality, at least as it is intimated here, is that all great empires are ultimately their own undoing.

The last days of the world came with a whimper,
not a bang
no white knight got the girl,
and no fat lady sang
and someone in a back room somewhere
made one small mistake
was it ebola or cholera,
what difference does it make?

You could either give into the fear, or live your life. Go out cowering and not having lived, or go out dancing. So unless you're one of the few pulling the strings on this choking planet, you might as well say fuck it and dance.

If you have never heard of Planet P, you really do owe it to yourself to seek them out. If not for the poignant lyricism, the deft and soaring guitar work, the social and historical relevance, or the sheer infectiousness of the music itself, if not for any of those reasons, do it to support a man who has been a visionary for over 25 years, and who somehow continues to make some of the most engaging music out there. While I might not suggest starting with Levittown, that is in no way a slight to its brilliance. And no, it is not dependent on the previous releases in any critical way. But go over to Amazon and grab 1931 first, and then let Levittown be the crescendo. Listen to them back to back and see if something doesn't shift inside you.

And then you can wait with the rest of us, until Go Out Dancing Part 3 arrives, hopefully before the collapse of civilization.

More:

Official Site: http://www.truebeliever.de/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Carey

Levittown background (wikipedia)

Order Planet P Project- Levittown