Album bio: Last Living Cannibal - On A Perfect Earth EP
Art-rock original Allister Kellaway aka Last Living Cannibal will release his On A Perfect Earth EP through London heat seeking label Nothing Fancy this winter.
It comes as the second step in the life of the Last Living Cannibal project, following last year’s self-released debut album 7 Years, but it brings to the table experience and nous garnered from many years in the scene, during which he has explored many realms of sound and style. Recently, Kellaway has been involved in producing the latest album from Norwegian art-pop star EERA, Speak, and prior to that he whipped up cult-like adoration as leader of the rabble-rousing band The Mantis Opera.
Now working solo as Last Living Cannibal, Kelleway is using the creative outlet to deliver his most refined and immediate work to date. “I wanted to go back into more traditional chords and structures,” he says. “I wanted to write songs focusing on lyrics and subtle changes.”
The six-track On A Perfect Earth provides a gleaming window into the fascinating psyche of the songwriter and the way in which his brain processes the daily humdrum of modern life. “I’m more drawing influence from the immediate stuff I’m feeling,” he says. “Writing about all these irrational thoughts and feelings as a way of showing how ridiculous they are.”
Early single “Wicked Hands” gave us our first glimpse of the shinier and snappier sound that Last Living Cannibal has corralled on On A Perfect Earth, while also delivering some of his most gut-punchingly honest lyrics. Reminiscent of Low’s Alan Sparhawk or Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, it found him diving headlong into his disappointment, heedlessly singing out his hurt.
He now follows it up with the next single, the dream-pop missive “Alligator Mist”. Explaining the story behind the song, Kelleway reveals:
“On one level this song is me trying to persuade my close friend to leave London and move to Hastings where I’ve been living for a year. On another it’s about trying to find some kind of equilibrium, a way of life that’s settled and peaceful. The song is really just my way of salvaging some optimism for my friend as well as myself, and kinda finding it in this misty seaside town.”
Floating on weightless acoustic guitar and feathered drums, interwoven with a mystical synth melody, “Alligator Mist” is a vehicle for Last Living Cannibal’s musings on the fickleness of memory and the strength of love. He gracefully chops down to size weighty thoughts about his past and present, his aging heart and the place he now calls home. Directed to a close friend and sung in tender tones, “Alligator Mist” sounds like a private message that we’ve been allowed to enter and enjoy for its earnest emotion and finely-crafted arrangement, all bound with a thread of silvery violin.
Next single “Samson” sees Last Living Cannibal crack open and expose his vulnerabilities through his own poetic lens. He explains:
“Samson is about feeling like things are crumbling around you a bit, like at any moment things could give way and the house implodes with you in it. In the end it’s like salvation comes in the form of some external unforgiving force that could equally make things better or worse. Somehow that feels like a better option than everything falling apart by no cause other than just random bad luck.”
Over a steadily marching beat and a skittish acoustic melody, Last Living Cannibal guides us around his lonely world with a ghostly yet powerful presence that is reminiscent of classic singers like Scott Walker. A guitar solo burns through “Samson”, followed by rays of organ that reach into the song like sunshine, and Last Living Cannibal opens his lungs and expresses his simplest yet deepest desires: “I’m alone / I’m missing company / On the hill I can see for miles and miles / Come on down / Why don’t you stay a while?” He sings these concluding lines with an openness that transmits the unfathomable depth of his longing, the barrier between songwriter and listener completely dissolved.
Other highlights on the EP include the elegiac and beguiling paranoid pop of “Forever Changing Summers” and the melancholy acceptance of the textural final track “Full Circle”. Each entry in this lovelorn package uncovers a different facet of Kelleway’s emotional truth. As a whole, On A Perfect Earth brings all of Kelleway’s recording experience, production ingenuity, natural songwriting ability and emotional intelligence are harnessed and amplified. This is a new calling card for the continually rising talent.
