14 DAY TRIAL // Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix has managed to do what many deemed impossible: make a “perfect” music album that would never see the light of day. Precisely one year ago, the star said he would retire from acting to pursue a career in music, kicking it off with a couple not too stellar rap performances in Las Vegas. Today, courtesy of E! Online, we have the first details of the album that will never be.
As the e-zine puts it after speaking with musician Julian Shah-Tayler, who worked closely with Phoenix this past year, the album he recorded is the closest thing to perfection. The problem is we will never get to hear it because this is what makes it so special: if Joaquin would have simply gone ahead and released it, it would not have been so out of the ordinary and awesome as it is now, Shah-Tayler believes.
“He’s a Beatles, Oasis, Bowie-style songwriter. I hold it in that high esteem. He’s accomplished just about everything anyone could accomplish as an artist. So coming out with a brilliant album of great music would not surprise anybody, and I think that’s maybe why he didn’t release it... And I think it’s better to have some secrets, and I think Joaquin’s secret is his prodigious music talent,” Shah-Tayler says for E!, hinting that the masterpiece on which Phoenix has been working for about a year will remain long lost.
This, of course, is not to say that he’s not worth all the praise in the world. “He was one of the most demonstrative producers I’ve ever worked with. He would absolutely take you through the mental process of getting through it. Brilliant. He got exactly what he wanted and he got some of the best work out of me, as a pianist, that I have ever performed. […] He’s quite capable of whatever he turns his hand to... Whatever it is, it will be genius, because I think he’s close to genius,” Shah-Tayler further explains.
Apparently, he and Phoenix worked on eight new tracks that the actor himself wrote, and recorded in his in-house studio. All the while the album was in production, Phoenix was neither acting erratically nor the lethargic guy fans saw on David Letterman, with Shah-Tayler describing him as “bubbly” and “effervescent.”