Eight years is a long, long time between albums. It's a luxury few artists can afford - either in terms of their career or in terms of their pocketbook - but is one who can, largely because he's the son of rock royalty, which ensures that he has the cash and public profile to take his time between projects.

Sep 29, 2006  Friendly Fire is the second studio album by Sean Lennon, released on 3 October 2006 by Capitol Records in the US, and Parlophone in the UK. It reached #152 on the US Billboard 200 chart and #5 in the Top Heatseekers chart. It stayed on the French album chart.

And he certainly did take his time after the release of his 1998 debut, touring with while he was dating their keyboardist, then just fading away into the New York socialite/artist scene after the turn of the millennium. He would pop up on-stage on occasion - sometimes with 's son, sometimes with his mother, sometimes with - but for the most part he kept a low profile (at least as far the rest of the U.S. Outside of N.Y.C. Was concerned) until 2006, when his sophomore effort, was finally released. More than anything, it sounds like a record that was made with no sense of urgency whatsoever. Its lazy cascade of gently plucked acoustic guitars, vaguely baroque keyboards, echoey guitars, breathy harmonies, and liberal borrowings from psychedelic and sounds as if its been mildly tinkered with over the years, a little bit added here, an overdub there, until it eventually was done.

Sonically, it's not far removed from; it's only not as cheery in spirit as that debut, and explained the reason why in the publicity surrounding the release of. The songs are inspired by a romantic catastrophe of his: his girlfriend slept with his best friend, thereby precipitating a breakup and a falling out, and the friend died in a motorcycle accident before could patch things up with him. Sad stuff, no doubt, and knowledge of the tale lends resonance to the album's title, yet the incessant repetition of the story in the press leaves a ghoulish aftertaste - particularly since the incident happened years ago (also, knowing that the girlfriend was - not exactly an innocent - tends to undercut a reader's sympathy). But there's a reason that the story was repeated often: a listener needs to know the context if these songs are to have any emotional weight, since without that, is merely a set of palely pretty, sort of sad, yet sort of sweet indie pop bathed in the glow of the '60s. It's pleasant enough, but it kind of fades away as it plays, partially because it's so thin and partially because has a thin, reedy voice that doesn't draw in listeners. Might not be able to help his voice, but he could learn how to use it to his advantage, especially if he were making records a little more frequently, since he would develop chops.

As it stands, his career is starting to seem like a rich kid's holiday, and has the same feel as: namely, it's a pleasant but forgettable arty pop record made by a guy who has some promise but little discipline.

Writers & Publishers

from the album Friendly Fire 路Copyright: Writer(s): Sean Ono Lennon Lyrics Terms of Use Politics and prose bookstore website.

I don't want to hear
Another word from you now
I'd rather be wrong
Life is mostly what
You don't see anyway
So just look away
But our shadows
Never leave us alone
Down the bad roads
They will follow us
Faithfully home

You launched the assualt
With the first cannonball
My soldiers were sleeping
I know that you thought
It would never come down,
Down to the wire
It's friendly fire

In your room filled with the things
That you've never done
Does anyone really care
Your shadow
Just wont leave you alone
'cos he knows well
He knows what you've done

You launched the assualt

With the first cannonball
My soldiers were sleeping
I know that you thought
It could never come down,
Down to the wire
It's friendly fire

Waves don't wonder
When you're drowning
Under the sea
So don't look for me
Find her keep her lose her
Deserts you in the end
You were my friend
Like your shadow
No one knows you as well
As I do

You launched the assualt
With the first cannonball
My soldiers were sleeping
I know that you thought
It would never come down,
Down to the ground
'cos I was so tired
Then I'll get down
Down to the wire
It's friendly fire