Pitchfork Review | The Real Tuesday Weld | I, Lucifer

Pitchfork
The Real Tuesday Weld: I, Lucifer
by Jonathan Zwickel
April 2004

“Steven Coates must spend a lot of time swimming through the currents of his unconscious.
A few years ago, Coates awoke from a dream certain he had been 1930s jazz dandy Al Bowlly and 60s cult actress Tuesday Weld in the nocturnal presence; that day he adopted a new name, sidetracked a career in the visual arts, and began to make modern music that drew inspiration from classic European cabaret and throwback romanticism.

With I, Lucifer, Coates, under nom-de-chanson (The Real) Tuesday Weld, draws the listener deep into a scratchy, sepia-toned fantasy that first suggests the gap between boozy, swinging ragtime, sophisticated lounge poetics, and innovative beat technique, then bridges it in one swooning swoop.

Like any superior story, the variety of moods and settings I, Lucifer spans is inspiring. Coates not only has the grand imagination and facile wit necessary to build an evocative fictional world, but he's got the musical prowess to keep the plot moving forward without leaving the listener behind. An album worth reading.”

Read the full review here.