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Hear/Say "Don't set me free," pleads John Petkovic on Cobra Verde's latest release, Nightlife, and this attitude resonates throughout the CD. Since his work in the 1980s with Bowie/Roxy Music devotees Death of Samantha, Petkovic has mischievously chronicled the mores and desires of modern life; Nightlife is a grand culmination of these explorations. Be it political, social or sexual, Petkovic sees life in terms of power changing hands. In "Crashing in a Plane"-a frenzied tune heightened by longtime Tom Waits saxophonist Ralph Carney and Theramin player Chas Smith-Petkovic announces himself "a detour/sleeping through the new world" and that "there's no hidin'/from the jailer jailin'/in the name of freedom." Love, too, is such a struggle, as sexual desires ebb and flow between the seeker and the wanted. In "Casino," he draws a picture of a love relationship in which "the master tells the slave/you'll learn to love the whip" while in "Tourist," he muses on romance, mentioning that "the servants/sing songs of freedom," then asking if "the free/sing songs about them?" Petkovic's straight-ahead drive jibes nicely with the material. Disdaining the ironic, heart-on-the-sleeve approach of his fellow Generation-Xers, Petkovic gleefully embraces the bombastic and grandiose. The curt power chords of "Heaven in the Gutter" and "Burden of Dreams" recall the tightness Mick Ronson brought to the Spiders from Mars. Lyrically, Petkovic uses a Brechtian approach on "Pontius Pilate," sketching the Roman official as a clumsy modern bureaucrat. The CD includes two previously released singles, the Gary Numan-influenced "One Step Away From Myself" and the disciplined pop offering, "Every God For Himself." In his effort to get so many things right, Petkovic does miss the mark a few times: the infectious guitar loop of "Contact" goes on too long and "Two Dollar Souvenir" never develops past its intro. But, Nightlife is a truly original vision of decadence and morality in turn-of-the-century life. -Jeff Ehrbar |