Album Of The Week - "Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico" by Chris Connelly

Chris Connelly is an amazing talent. Not only does he have outstanding vocals, velvet vibrato, but he also delivers his songs with such inflamed emotion, it makes you feel you are a bystander in a theatrical production. He’s a class act, whose career spans 40 years, and whose music remains timeless, original and of a high calibre.

Born in Scotland, but now based in Chicago, Connelly started his musical career in Edinburgh with the band Fini Tribe and has since released over 20 solo pieces of music and has collaborated with many musicians including projects like Ministry, The Revolting Cocks and Pigface, as well as contributing more recently with Cocksure and The Joy Thieves. He has also published four books including poetry, autobiographical and fictional narrative, which are testaments to Connelly’s artistic flair, astute intellect and extensive talent.

Following the success of his singles “Eulogy to Lenny Bruce”, and “Ripcord, Ripcord“, Connelly has released his album “Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico”, where those singles will feature and which has been selected as The Manc Review’s “Album Of The Week”.

As an album, “Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico” is a mesmerising masterpiece. It’s an album that takes you on a journey of amplified emotions, raw sentiments and arcane ambience. It’s an album that time travels back to the origins of prog-rock, glam-rock, art-rock, space-rock, new wave and experimental rock and revives its alchemical powers like a sorcerer of sonics. It’s a rebirth of the rock star, that gathers the cosmic dust of all the greats and sprinkles its magic on the shadows of its soul.

Although the album is essentially a tribute to Nico, it’s an album that goes beyond its melancholic motif and presents a fully-fledged, all or nothing presentation of 20 tracks that dives deep into the darkness of the human psyche and hangs out in the grey areas of existentialism, dystopia and abandoned dreams. It’s a barren darkness of poetic musings, smouldering in an underworld of passion, death and survival. It’s musical mythology resurrected and risen from ashes of Krautrock, blending the holographic aesthetics of psychedelic rock and industrial rock with the improvised interludes of stellar strums and space-synths. It’s an intimate affair, that resides in the avant-garde aloofness prevalent in the 60s and late 70s and injects a heavy dose of noir nostalgia into its visceral veins.

It’s a welcome addition to accolades associated with the Holy Trinity of experimentalism and innovation. Think David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed taking a sci-fi space expedition with Throbbing Gristle, Brian Eno and Neu, then you get the idea where this album sits in the Wall of Fame. It’s a magnificent burst of musical theatre, that unleashes a stream of pensive, passionate and possessed personas, singing from the depths of hell and rising to the heavenly heights of mysticism. It’s an esoteric opera, that sings with the phantasmal presence of the past and sacrifices its spirit to the rock-gods.

Through the outstanding vocals of Connelly, “Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico” croons from the nebulous corners of post-punk and nestles in the nocturnal realms of goth-rock. He’s a real artist in every sense, who oozes charisma and intensity, with a magnetic stage presence. He’s a multi-talented performer, who places the melodramatics back in music, whilst revelling in his own enigma and maintaining an alluring mystique.

Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/album/eulogy-to-christa/1644583267
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BCH9861T

The ‘Eulogy to Christa’ LP is out now on CD and digitally via Shipwrecked Industries in the USA and Easy Action in the UK. It is available directly from the artist via Bandcamp, as well as Apple Music and Amazon.

CREDITS
Recorded at The Rock Noir July 2021 / January 2022
Mastered by James Scott at Populist Recording and Mastering
Produced by Chris Bruce
Chris Connelly: Vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, harmonium, harmonica, keyboards, bass
Chris Bruce: Additional instruments and guitar solo on ‘Ripcord’
Sleeve design by Greg Rolfes. Layout by Kimberly Blessing
Nico cover photo by Alastair MacKay (Edinburgh Nite Club, August 1981)
Inside photo of Nico taken by Howard Goldblatt (Tuts, Chicago 1982)
Tray photo of harmonium by Jonah Rubash
Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 23 by Chris Connelly
Tracks 9, 11,13, 18, 21, 22, 24 written by Nico (Christa Päffgen)
Track 3 ‘The Last Mile’ written by Oldham / Page
Track 19 ‘Vegas’ written by Nico / Quilichini
Track 6 ‘Femme Fatale’ written by Lou Reed
Track 7 ‘Eulogy to Lenny Bruce’ written by Tim Hardin

Publicity by Shauna McLarnon @ Shameless Promotion PR
Management: Kimberly Blessing @ Shipwrecked Industries
Chris Connelly is published by Bicycle Music/Concord BMI
Dedicated to Nico (Christa Päffgen) 1938 – 1988
For the lovers on St. Stephen’s

TRACK LIST – DISC ONE
1: Ripcord, Ripcord
2: Via Margutta
3: The Last Mile
4: Union Square West
5: Andy, Incidentally
6: Femme Fatale
7: Eulogy to Lenny Bruce
8: Oh Jim II
9: Frozen Warnings
10: I Cannot Care for You
11: The Falconer

TRACK LIST – DISC TWO
12: The Black Rooms of Richelieu
13: Valley of the KIngs
14: Reims 12/74
15: A Slow Jones in New York
16: 80s Beat Boys
17: Running Pure
18: Sixty Forty
19: Vegas
20: Draw From It (Like a Vampire)
21: Saeta
22: Tananore
23: FA Massa Calor
24: Hanging Gardens of Semiramis