Monday, May 21, 2018

Patiently Awaiting the Machine – Electrified




Patiently Awaiting the Machine – Electrified


Dee and the Grand Brothers are partnering for an album together at just the right time. The former’s massive YouTube success, two solo releases (the second produced by his current creative partners), and “Miles and Miles (Living on the Edge)” placing with a highly visible Ford Super Bowl commercial. Their collaboration, dubbed Patiently Awaiting the Meteorite, has completed recording its first studio release entitled Canyon Diablo and the first single from the forthcoming disc, “Electrified”, is a powerful piece of pop song craft with considerable musical muscle. “Electrified” owes much of its success, naturally, to the Grand Brothers’ contributions, but Dee is clearly a key part in the success of the song as well and the chemistry this musical partnership generates isn’t quite like anything you’ve heard in recent memory. You can feel the confidence they have in this effort coming through in every passage, no matter what slant it takes with a listener.

They pull all this off without ever sounding obnoxious about it. Instead, there’s a near anthemic quality to this song complete with an uplifting chorus that drives one of the song’s central points home without ever browbeating listeners with too many words. Everything is very purposeful with this track and nothing feels extraneous. Instead, “Electrified” comes off as a single where the principles involved cut the song with a clear idea of what they wanted to do with this song from the outset and realized it thanks to a combination of inspiration and skill.

“Electrified” bristles from the beginning with barely suppressed energy and the sense of an explosion barely held in throughout the entirety of the song gives it an air of tension that makes this an even more delectable listening experience. Patiently Awaiting the Meteorite’s single never sounds forced or rushed and the consistent push behind its tempo has a grab you by the lapels and shake you around quality that makes this an intensely physical listen from the outset.

It has a ton of personality, as well, thanks to the vocal presence in the song’s mix. Dee and the female backing vocals running throughout the song are never obscured by the boisterous arrangement and, instead, exhibit many of the same qualities and mood we hear from the music. Dee’s voice exhibits the same instant likability we heard in his earlier and very successful singles like “Miles and Miles (Living on the Edge)” and “Filter Factory” while also stretching his talents for dramatization in a new and exciting direction. He clearly benefits from working with the Grand Brothers because they intuitively understand how to best utilize his voice, but Dee is a considerable talent in his own right who obviously inspires the brothers to pursue higher peaks with this release than they’ve had the opportunity to reach for in their earlier work for other artists. Patiently Awaiting the Meteorite clearly has the talent to be a major player on the pop scene, so we can only hope that “Electrified” and the upcoming Canyon Diablo are more than just a thrilling one off project for these performers, producers, and writers.


Glenn Farnsworth

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Jiggley Jones - Not Your Typical day Out



Jiggley Jones - Not Your Typical Day Out


Jiggley Jones returns to the forefront of modern Americana with his new full-length feature, Not Your Typical Day Out, which carries on the tried and true tradition of uncut artistic expression through the medium of music that was started by countryside minstrels so many generations ago. In the ten songs offered here, Jiggley presents us ten uniquely individual tales of love, mystery and the never ending journey towards self-awareness.

Our album opens with the majestic “Danger Island.” Bluegrass-stained strings invite us deeper into a cozy scene of two people sitting beside one another. Jones’ vocal penetrates the pastureland with a Dylanesque disdain; “Cannibals are everywhere,” he tells us, as if to warn of the many greedy eyes that surround a lustful heart so easily taken advantage of. Suddenly an alarm clock breaks in, and “Wide Awake” kicks into gear, stylishly reading what feels like a love letter to a femme fatale. Here we view the concept of love as being a wild and free energy that is uncontainable, contagious even. “Vibrant” takes us careening through a flood of childhood memories and emotional turning points in the maturation of a young adult. The things that make us who we are, we end up experiencing them all over when we have children of our own, and reliving the same incorruptibility that youth provides us. The meticulously arranged ballad “Del Alma” brings a cool harmonica melody into the fold and evokes images of a dark nighttime sky that sometimes seems to be the only thing we’ve got to count on in this crazy world. The gathering crowd of voices and harmonious band-play assembles before our ears, as if to affirm to us that Jones is speaking for countless people when he proclaims his message of love and proud eccentricities.

The second half of Not Your Typical Day Out doesn’t let down, either. “That Pearl,” the sixth song on the record, opens with a piano striking aggressively into melodic acoustic guitars. Suddenly we find ourselves drifting down a river of contemplation. Our joy and our spirit are all there is in the world in this place Jones is creating for us. There is no stress or anxiety to bother us, only a desire to conquer our own hearts so we can truly understand what love means; what the grand prize of life is. “Warm” adds a dose of rhythm to Not Your Typical Day Out that definitely feels danceable, and its swagger is almost along the lines of a mid-period Beatles track. It might be the most interesting song on the album in that it truly exemplifies Jiggley Jones’ incredible versatility as a composer.

"Gray” follows in a mist of grungy dissonance and ponders whether or not love can grow in a place where a heart has grown cold. “Flow” and “Restless” pick us back up in a blast of rock n’ roll twang, as though Jones needed to make a point towards the close of the album that above all, he worships the six-string. We end on the gentle “Rain,” which acts as a sort of cool down to the poetic and compositional calisthenics we’ve just participated in. As an artist, Jiggley Jones poses a lot of compelling questions on Not Your Typical Day Out. As listeners, we’re left with just one – when can we get more, Mr. Jiggley Jones


Gwen Waggoner