John Common: A Blinding Flash John Common, you are one perplexing dude... To pay the rent, you're an IT consultant who clearly speaks business. But in your spare time you run an all-kazoo orchestra, donate one of your songs to a bizarre performance-art video and send artists your work in wooden boxes to see how they'll combine the two. In your videos, you're relaxed, and in one personal take you come across as almost a country boy - think Garth Brooks light. Yet in other glamour shots you wear these hip wrap-around sunglasses we could imagine Bono wearing. (When we asked which one was you, you laughed and said "both.") When this editor spoke with you one evening, you were impeccably polite; still, talking to you leaves the curious impression that you'd said only (and exactly) what you wanted to say. And you were clear that you didn't want to be recorded (perhaps because that offers you less control?) All told, the word enigmatic comes to mind. I'll say it again: John Common, you are one perplexing dude. But what does that matter? The man behind the curtain may be studiedly obscure, but the man behind the guitar shares something intimate and precious with every take. Your editor literally teared up, overcome emotionally, when she first caught the song "Love is A Shark," just the first in a stunning array of flawless tracks: immaculately arranged and produced, performed with a blend of restraint and passion by consummate musicians. John, whether you're irrepressibly eccentric or just yanking our chains with some Andy Kaufman-style Living Theater activities, we may never learn. What we do know is that whatever game you're playing, you win, ok? In a matter of weeks, Beautiful Empty has dropped out of the sky and landed on our short list of favorite albums ever, with nary a complaint from new neighbors Joni Mitchell's Blue and Paul Simon's Graceland. We're almost afraid to ask ourselves what you and the Flashes of Light will do next.
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