Charles Hamilton - The Pink Lavalamp
My favorite album of all time, probably. Charles is a phenomenally interesting artist, also probably my favorite artist. As someone who suffers from a lot of the same mental troubles that I do, Charles speaks to the raw pain that I'll feel in a way I've never heard anyone else do. "I'll Be Around", the penultimate song of the album, is something I'd consider a masterpiece. I've never heard anyone (or, truthfully, seen anyone in any form of fiction or media) get across the feeling of sorrow toward your friends for your inability to truly show your appreciation towards them the way you want to the way he does while you self destruct independent of their offered help.
It's not an easy work imo. He's not really an easy artist. His catalogue of music is fucking insane, really, if you look into it you'll find he was an artist on the path for superstardom who lost it all to drugs and mental illness, refusing to compromise even slightly on anything he released, and he basically put up thousands of tracks for free. Charles has had a bit of a comeback in later years and he seems to be doing better, but goddamn if the earlier phase isn't relatable.
My favorite album of all time, probably. Charles is a phenomenally interesting artist, also probably my favorite artist. As someone who suffers from a lot of the same mental troubles that I do, Charles speaks to the raw pain that I'll feel in a way I've never heard anyone else do. "I'll Be Around", the penultimate song of the album, is something I'd consider a masterpiece. I've never heard anyone (or, truthfully, seen anyone in any form of fiction or media) get across the feeling of sorrow toward your friends for your inability to truly show your appreciation towards them the way you want to the way he does while you self destruct independent of their offered help.
It's not an easy work imo. He's not really an easy artist. His catalogue of music is fucking insane, really, if you look into it you'll find he was an artist on the path for superstardom who lost it all to drugs and mental illness, refusing to compromise even slightly on anything he released, and he basically put up thousands of tracks for free. Charles has had a bit of a comeback in later years and he seems to be doing better, but goddamn if the earlier phase isn't relatable.