Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Loss is a great leveller, and a source of untold inspiration.
It may not feel like it at the time, but those personal bullet marks, the shrapnel that breaks our heart from the moment we learn of a life of a friend, a lover, a parent, has been taken by Time, give us a reason, should we wish to observe it, to honour the person that was. Be it a stranger, a fantasy figure, a respected artist, or any other soul that has in one way or another touched us, blessed our mind as well as our heart, we take that shrapnel and mould into a finer piece of reflection…no longer able to hurt us, it serves as an aide- memoire of the divine and the beautiful.
The Hip Shrapnel is for Dean Johnson a culmination of the divine search after the loss of a best friend, and the polar view of witnessing an interview of the late Lou Reed. An album that searches for and discovers the human condition when confronted by the sense of patience for grief when another person leaves our side.
The album is as much for the listener that struggles with the loss of Time, and for Mr. Johnson’s own fierce candour over the passing of renowned rock critic and N.M.E. writer, Gavin Martin.
Honour is the key emotional sound that drives Hip Shrapnel, a poetic delivery of principle that emerges from each track as if guided by the spirit of discovery as well as memory, and as tracks such as Fluorescent, Lou’s Last Interview, Bangor To Barbados, Uncomfortable Skin, and the unshakable finale of All The Young Suicides, Dean Johnson is given freedom to mourn, but also to celebrate what must have been a relationship built on the foundations of trust, love, equality and respect, as well as fun and joy, and in that the tribute offered is more than just words, it is a life given a flourish of release, a privilege of expression undaunted.
Loss is the leveller, but to acknowledge that loss in art, to give it a name, is the duty of friendship, and in Hip Shrapnel, that name is undoubtedly, and respectively, Dean Johnson.
Ian D. Hall