Helen of Troy

From the celestial opening strains of "My Maria," which sounds in places like a hymn, to the teeth-gnashing "Sudden Death," Cale shows us heaven, hell, and the life in between. Employing a cocktail of wild experimentation, tonal versatility, and range of emotion, Cale's compositions whip from soaring serenades like "I Keep a Close Watch" to the unhinged, wild-eyed "Leaving It Up to You" (pulled from the original release due to it's reference to the murder of Sharon Tate) to the soulful, surf-derived "China Sea. " Eno's synthesizer casts love spells and shadows while Chris Spedding's guitar drills bluesy, ragged holes through every composition. A tormented, sinister cover of the Modern Lovers' "Pablo Picasso" (Cale produced the Lovers' debut) shows what you get when you replace Jonathan Richman's dreamy smile with Cale's bared teeth.