The End of Don Henley's Innocence

What do Don Henley, Hernan Cortes’s 16th century conflict with the Aztecs, Stephen Dedalus from Portrait of the Artist, Andy Warhol’s silver wig, the virtualisation of wilderness and 9/11 share in common? Well, besides belonging to our magnificent Earth, these events, objects, people and characters have all become juxtaposed subject matter on Dirty Projectors’ third album for Western Vinyl, The Getty Address. A self-described "glitch opera” by 23-year-old chief Projector, Yale student Dave Longstreth, Getty features ex-Eagle Don Henley as a protagonist in Longstreth’s exploration of contemporary America’s similarities with the Aztec Empire and "the transformation of the American landscape into a national grid of uniformly commercialised zones.” This might read like an invitation to hear Tommy’s Amazing Technicolour Preservation Society Club Band, but musically, The Getty Address demonstrates a carefully articulated musical sparseness, allowing angelic choruses, emotive strings and Bang on a Can’s percussion (all digitally assembled by Longstreth) to breathe freely. Imagine Björk’s Medulla, the Microphones’ Mt. Eerie and Justin Timberlake’s Justified in one big mash-up, and you’ll still be absolutely amazed. Kevin Hainey