When Adrian Belew released his 25th solo album Elevator a few weeks ago, the rock legend hoped it would give listeners a boost.
“It’s basically a COVID record — not that it’s all about COVID, but it basically happened during that really horrible time,” Belew explains, speaking by phone from his home in Mt. Juliet, where he has lived for nearly three decades. “And the one thing I said to myself was, ‘Wow, I want this record to be something that lifts you up, makes you feel better. Because I know when we come through this dark period of time, that’s what people are going to need.’
“That’s, of course, the reason it’s called Elevator — I wanted to uplift people,” he continues. “So I tried to do things with a light, humorous edge. But also at the same time you do want to say something meaningful as often as you can.”
The album’s 12 tracks accomplish those goals and more, serving up both humor and wisdom on top of the kind of jaw-dropping, joy-evoking, cutting-edge music that has been Belew’s trademark throughout his career. In addition to his extensive solo catalog, he served as frontman of King Crimson for three decades, building on early work as a sought-after sideman for Frank Zappa, David Bowie and Talking Heads. Somehow, he found time to collaborate and perform with Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon and many others as well. Through it all, Belew has firmly established himself as one of the most innovative figures in rock history.
“That’s always what I’m trying to do, just be more and more creative and move forward,” he says of his musical explorations. “The one thing I think a lot of the people I worked with had is they were people pushing the boundaries.
“But you can’t take it so far that it doesn’t sound right, you know? I mean, I can experiment and make interesting sounds, but they have to ultimately fit together in a way that sonically is pleasing. … I’m a songwriter — of course I look out for the song first. The experimental stuff fits in if it’s needed or can fit.”
Like the best of Belew’s work, the songs on Elevator are built upon memorable musical and lyrical hooks presented within a traditional pop-rock song structure. The arrangements, which are intricate and in places beautiful, balance the familiar and the otherworldly. As he has on most of his solo recordings, Belew wrote, arranged, played and sang every part on the album. The only other person involved was engineer Miles Fuqua.
“I basically used three different guitars,” he says. “Either my Parker Fly, or a Stratocaster, or an Epiphone that has three pickups with a five-way switch, so you’re able to get 15 completely different sounds out of it. So I could get really oddball tones out of that guitar. All the keyboard stuff is played from a Yamaha Motif that I have. And with that, of course, you can play strings, you can play everything else — you know, cellos or whatever. Piano, of course. Great piano sounds.”
Belew kicks off the record with a ringing guitar chord reminiscent of the iconic one that opens The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” There, he begins a journey out of his COVID hibernation and back into the world where he finds things are “Backwards and Upside Down.” In that song, he reminds the listener that “One thing for sure is that / Violence is never the cure / Never has been.”
Belew drops simple but sage advice throughout the album — like in “Attitude,” when he sings, “Time, don’t burn it up being hateful.” But he also shares his whimsically twisted sense of humor. As he explains: “For the past half a dozen solo records, I’ve tried to include something that’s a bit off-the-wall and more based on wordplay and humorous takes on things.”
“Taking My Shoes Out for a Walk” is a prime example. In that song, Belew takes a strange stroll, at one point noting: “I myself spotted an ocelot / Not sure if it was lost or not / But I thought, ‘I bet they cost a lot.’ ” His humor is also on display in “A Car I Can Talk To.” He wants an intelligent car that can do more than just give you directions and warn you that someone’s in your blind spot — one he can tell his troubles to, that’s never argumentative, that can think fast and maybe beat him in a chess match.
“It’s humorous, yes, but it’s also indicative of something,” he says. “I feel like that’s where our society is headed, where we’re all talking to machines.”
Belew embarked on a 26-date U.S. tour in support of Elevator on July 13 with the current version of his power trio, which includes longtime bassist Julie Slick and new drummer Johnnie Luca. The tour makes a hometown stop at City Winery on Tuesday. The show will open with a song-oriented set by the trio, followed by a solo acoustic set by Belew. Then the power trio will return in full force for a final set, of which Belew says: “As my fans probably know, the power trio is going to come bursting out and going crazy, playing King Crimson stuff and the heavy stuff.”
