Willis Earl Beal – ‘A Place That Doesn’t Exist’
Willis Earl Beal is one of the industry’s travelling poet-musos, and his new release, ‘A Place That Doesn’t Exist,’ doesn’t disappoint. It delivers another hunk of literary-drenched rhythm and soul. It’s for this forlorn reason that Willis Earl Beal is Monday’s Track Of The Day.
A rough and experimental piece, Beal’s spoken word is what truly sings out amongst the off-beats and troubling trebles of ‘A Place That Doesn’t Exist’, the lead track from the album that bears the same name. In it, Beal dances with his love of the spoken word, mirroring Ginsberg, Burroughs and many other beat poets who littered America in the 1950s, disillusioned by war and tired of chasing a hollow and superficial dream. An ex-homeless man; Beal has not only the credentials to be allowed to replicate such greats but the creativity to powerfully perform them.
We at Far Out aren’t particularly known for our poetic prowess; we enjoy lyrics, and we get them, we think, but this is a dip of the toe into the literary waters of a musician succumbed by admiration and recognition of a time gone by.
The verses are as powerful as when one first hears Bukowski in all his raving madness; drenched in whiskey-soaked venom comes a vitriolic description of the aching world around our auteur.
Beal is left Describing the failings and faults of a society bred in oneself and the overlord masters that control it – sex, money and adulation.
It is with these words still reverberating around your ears and mind that Beal’s voice, among industrial pounding, soulfully breaks the poetry with sweet singing softness. I won’t continue to describe the sound of this track too much; it is a track to be heard and read, not spoken of.
Willis Earl Beal, with this track, has shown himself more than a singer/songwriter. As so many ex-Squeeze morons would like to label him, he is truly an artist. Much cynicism will be plastered across this EP and poets across the country will unite in turning their noses. However, as with any artist, Beal is looking for the approval of his peers; he is looking to connect with a disillusioned generation of which he is a part.
Listen to the album below.
Never Miss A Beat
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