Throughout Mike Patton’s many, many projects (that hopefully will produce at least 365 songs, at least for the sake of this series), he doesn’t participate in duets with many female vocalists. One notable exception was the Lovage album Songs To Make Love To Your Old Lady By, where he teamed up with Jennifer Charles for a number of tunes. Including “Archie and Veronica.”
There are a few songs on this album that really excite me. This really isn’t one of them, but it’s solid nonetheless.
So, what is Lovage? Well, it’s kind of confusing. At least, according to Wikipedia, which wrote “Lovage is a collaborative project headed by Dan the Automator, under his pseudonym ‘Nathaniel Merriweather’ (a persona he created for the project Handsome Boy Modeling School).” Along with Patton, Charles, and DJ Kid Koala, the foursome produced an album of tongue-in-cheek romantic ballads.
The singing by Patton and Charles is enjoyable. But it wasn’t supposed to be serious.
As Pop Matters wrote, “It’s an album of stylish, funky, dreamy trip-pop, with hip-hop allusions here and there and a slightly cartoonish side. [Charles] croons in a sultry, pretty voice while [Patton] either growls or sings with a dramatic, art-rock lilt that’s somewhere between Nick Cave and that guy from Queensryche (Writer’s note: his name is Geoff Tate, for god’s sake!). The odd balance (and, particularly, the fact that Patton’s vocal style is too wild for your average slow jam) is the main thing that gives the album the air of a spoof …”
Patton told Decibel magazine, via Faith No More Followers, that he was simply trying to fill a role in Dan the Automator’s project.
“In some ways it was more acting than music,” Patton said. “There was a lot of performance on that record. I was basically playing a persona, which was a lot of fun. Jennifer and I didn’t do much of it together, but the stuff we did do together was pretty entertaining. There were definitely some episodes involved in that that I shouldn’t disclose.”
To follow along on the 365 days of Patton, click here for a list of each day’s post.
Josh Katzowitz - Sports Writer/Author/Editor 