This review just in from AmericanaUK.
See the review below or better still go directly to the AmericanaUK website here.
Many thanks to Jeremy Searle
JONES “TO THE BONE”
Meme Records, 2014Near-perfect explorations of the human heart
Another day, another slice of musical heaven from Miracle Mile man Trevor Jones. He strives for perfection, the perfect words, the perfect melody, to accompany his articulating of human emotions. Often he finds it, to such an extent that coming across a song that’s “just” very good, is something of a shock. With each new release he moves a little further along his personal road, a few steps towards that perfect album. He probably thinks he’ll never get there, which is exactly what artists should think. But some of us might beg to differ.
If you feel that emotions can’t be expressed except through blood, grit, dirt and raw howls then “To The Bone” will come as a revelation. When, on “Somewhere North of Here” Jones sings “I will walk beside you and you will know I’m there/I will touch you gently, to comfort your despair” his compassion is infinite, his reassurance total. When, on the opening “Phil The Hat”, he muses on an old friendship, it’s nostalgic but clear-eyed. When he describes a relationship slowly breaking up on “Man behind the Moon” he says more in ninety-seven seconds that most writers manage in an entire album. Ally lyrics of this power to equally good tunes, and tunes with hooks and gorgeous melodies to boot, and you have a magical listening experience. Comparisons have been made (and validly) to the Blue Nile and Paul Buchanan’s work but really Jones is in a class of one. There’s a spiritual sense to his music, not in any religious sense, but in his search for the essence of what it is to be human. This is an album that does indeed cut to the bone. Buy it. Buy it now.
If you feel that emotions can’t be expressed except through blood, grit, dirt and raw howls then “To The Bone” will come as a revelation. When, on “Somewhere North of Here” Jones sings “I will walk beside you and you will know I’m there/I will touch you gently, to comfort your despair” his compassion is infinite, his reassurance total. When, on the opening “Phil The Hat”, he muses on an old friendship, it’s nostalgic but clear-eyed. When he describes a relationship slowly breaking up on “Man behind the Moon” he says more in ninety-seven seconds that most writers manage in an entire album. Ally lyrics of this power to equally good tunes, and tunes with hooks and gorgeous melodies to boot, and you have a magical listening experience. Comparisons have been made (and validly) to the Blue Nile and Paul Buchanan’s work but really Jones is in a class of one. There’s a spiritual sense to his music, not in any religious sense, but in his search for the essence of what it is to be human. This is an album that does indeed cut to the bone. Buy it. Buy it now.
9/10
Jeremy Searle
Jeremy Searle
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