Gil Scott Heron – I’m New Here

As I mentioned back in October 2009, the last I had heard about Gil Scott-Heron, he had pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession of cocaine, accepting a deal of 18 to 24 months in an inpatient drug-rehabilitation program. That was July 2001. Now Gil has a new album out – his first since 1995.

Review by Thom Jurek

I’m New Here is a shock. It’s a wallop filled with big nasty beats, a wide range of sonic atmospheres, and more — sometimes unintentional — autobiographical intimacy than we’ve heard from Gil Scott-Heron than ever before. Produced by XL Recordings head Richard Russell, I’m New Here is his first record in 16 years. It is a scant 28 minutes and doesn’t need to be a second longer. It’s unlike anything he’s previously recorded, though there is metaphoric precedence in his earliest, largely spoken word albums. Its production pushes forcefully at the margins, and Scott-Heron embraces it without a hint of nostalgia. It opens with “On Coming from a Broken Home,” the first of a two-part poem that bookends the album. Over a piano and a sampled string loop (from Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights”), he reflects on his upbringing filled with strong female figures and an unconventional structure, with a startling epiphany at the end. It segues immediately into a slamming read of Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil,” with enormous hip-hop drums, sampled strings, and sonic effects that create a sense of brooding menace as Scott-Heron wails with bracing rawness to hair-raising effect. Just as quickly, the album shifts dramatically. A lone acoustic guitar introduces the Bill Callahan-penned title track. Scott-Heron recites the verse but sings its refrain: “No matter how far wrong gone/You can always turn around.” It feels like he’s speaking into a mirror with a dawning awareness of who — and what — he’s become as he accepts it. He now owns this song. A Burial-like wall of effects over a cello loop introduces “Your Soul and Mine.” It’s Scott-Heron’s unflinching look at death, and the way it feeds, yet ends with a warrior’s words: “So if you see the vulture coming/Flying circles in your mind/Remember there is no escaping/For he will follow close behind/Only promise me a battle/For your soul, and mine.” It’s not all darkness, however. A reading of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “I’ll Take Care of You,” features Gil’s soulful piano with a small string section. He sings it tenderly, in a now-raspier but still deeply expressive voice; it stands out sonically, but belongs here because of its intimacy. “New York Is Killing Me,” based on a John Lee Hooker blues, has been reinvented with almost entirely new lyrics and arrangement. Singers from the Harlem Gospel Choir; handclaps, bass drums, cymbals, synths, and guitar are treated spatially by Russell; Scott-Heron’s lead vocal roars from the center. “The Crutch” is a burning atmospheric poem about a junkie’s life. Scott-Heron doesn’t distance himself from his subject; it isn’t mere observation, but an empathic elegy, and Russell’s suffocatingly close production brings it home. Forty years after his debut, I’m New Here contains the artful immediacy that distinguishes Scott-Heron’s best art. The modern production adds immeasurably to that quality, underscores his continued relevance in reflecting the times, and opens his work to a new generation of listeners while giving older ones a righteous jolt. [XL is also offering a limited editon of 300 copies with seven bonus tracks. These include unreleased material from the album's sessions, as well as new versions of "Winter In America" and "Home Is Where The Hatred Is."]

Track Listing:

1. On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 1)
2. Me And The Devil
3. I’m New Here
4. Your Soul And Mine
5. Parents (Interlude)
6. I’ll Take Care Of You
7. Being Blessed (interlude)
8. Where Did The Night Go
9. I Was Guided (Interlude)
10. New York Is Killing Me
11. Certain Things (Interlude)
12. Running
13. The Crutch
14. I’ve Been Me (Interlude)
15. On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt. 2)

The Double LP is a deluxe import version of the album containing an extra 7 tracks:

1. Piano Player (intro)
2. Home Is Where The Hatred Is*
3. Winter In America*
4. Jazz (Interlude)
5. Is That Jazz*
6. A Place To Go (interlude)
7. My Cloud**

*Live Studio Version
**Previously Unreleased

I’m New Here is available in LP, CD, MP3, and FLAC formats from BeggarsGroupUSA.com:

Gil Scott-Heron is one of the most influential and important singer/songwriters to have come out of America in the second half of the last century. Much can be said about why this Gil’s lyrics are so original and powerful but ,it is important not to overlook his utterly singular voice which is so distinctive and rough and tender. It is a voice of experience.

And the way this voice of his floats over the shifting funk rhythms and the deep jazz, soul and blues melodies that he and his band create is nothing short of sublime. It’s also what enables him to draw you in to the difficult issues he does not shy away from dealing with. His sound is intimate and warm and direct and consequently it is hard to resist being moved and inspired by his message. And he has been consistently relevant whether it be on a personal or political canvas.

Early on in his career he wrote and recorded the song that for many is regarded as one of the first great rap tracks – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. From its opening lines which turn Timothy Leary on his addled head (“You will not be able to stay home brother. You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out. You will not be able to lose yourself on scag brother, because the revolution will not be televised.”), Gil threw down the gauntlet to we the people, challenging us to get involved, be informed, retain a sense of humour and do the right thing.

He was angry, politically savvy, compassionate and very funny.

When he was brought to Arista by Clive Davis in 1975, he was billed by the label as the black Bob Dylan, and whilst this reductive and over simplistic description is typical marketing bullshit, there is some raison d’etre for this moniker. For Gil is a protest poet of enormous subtlety who has railed against those things in the world that he believes are wrong. And like Dylan he has often used humour as a powerful weapon.

A new record from Gil Scott-Heron, forty years after his first solo album, is a cause for major celebration and something that the world needs now more than ever.