Where are the Dreams?

Scott Jones on Money Can't Buy Music's The Universe For Beginners

 

(September 2009)

 

As the cold air creeps in and the dark nights approach the moon in the cloudless night sky is not the only thing sparkling with an air of ancient magic. For along with the moon comes Gordon Ballboy’s other project Money can’t buy music’s ‘The Universe for Beginners’.

The album shimmers with the kind of magic of previous Ballboy albums but this time round it’s electronic and features beautiful female vocals by Maja Mángárd. The lyrics as you’d expect from Gordon are quietly masterful and Mángárd’s voice floats along the synths like Huckleberry Finn floating down the Mississippi with all the dreams in his heart.

‘We Will All Asphyxiate’ is a magical song full of wonder and life, the ‘Space’ synths are amazing as Gordon and Maja talk over them with enchanting lyrics, “As we lay here and watch them spinning and turning and arching in the darkness, wonder where they get their inspiration from? If they’re making music they must be getting it from somewhere, and sometimes, and yeah I admit it maybe only on our better days, sometimes I think, that they maybe get it from you and I”. And where is the inspiration these days? Do the kids dream anymore? Where have the dreams gone, the hopes, the fears, the imagination, the love, the life? Everyone is content with the trash on TV, or with the computer games, people just press record on their sky+ boxes and park themselves in front of it when they get home from work and watch their lives disappear to nothing before their eyes. They care so much for the fake lives on TV that they no longer have a life of their own, they have no magic in their eyes, no dreams in their heart and no inspiration to pass onto their kids.

'Beautyfilgirlssunnyledges’ and ‘Thunder and Lightning’ have some great lyrics and in ‘Slow Days’ which is an old Ballboy track Gordon’s lyrics ”the road to sadness is straighter now than it’s ever been before, at least we don’t have far to go”, is enough to make your heart weep.

‘Ghosts’ is a masterpiece like so many of Gordon’s songs, the lyrics are magical, and take you off to places in the far reaches of your heart. The album is full of magic, full of life and love and sadness, full of memories and ghosts, full of character and colour, and full of imagination and dreams.