Judson Claiborne – Time and Temperature
Judson Claiborne are actually friends of Jill from Sparrow & the Workshop, and it was during their Toad Session that I first heard of the band. Now, a couple of years on, they have a shiny new release, with spooky artwork and a proper PR company to send it me.
There’s a lot of Midlake in this – more than I remember in fact – but that’s no bad thing if your tunes are solid, which in this case they very much are. There’s a fair bit of Luna to some of the guitar work as well at times, and in general I suppose that’s as good a place to roughly place the band as any: roughly on a line drawn between the dreamy, harmony-rich Americana of Midlake and maybe even Band of Horses, and the less dense, slightly more unsettling guitar music of bands like Luna.
They shift through the gears quite deftly, without ever really feeling like they’re dramatically wrong-footing you. A little like their melodies, the atmosphere of the record just gently nudges you around, without ever giving you too much of a shove. Although I will admit that occasionally it could do with a little nudge itself.
This is a bit of a tortured analogy, but bear with me: it feels a bit like a nascent solar system, in a sense. Songs like The Freeze Up and a couple of the later tracks don’t entirely escape the gravity of the central cluster of matter, and could maybe do with settling into a slightly more distant orbit, just to prevent the whole album collapsing in on itself. Get what I mean? Sometimes I guess the consistent overall sound of the record risks dominating the songs themselves a little, and I think one or two could do with a little breathing space.
That’s a bit of a picky point to make though, and I don’t want to distract from my overall enjoyment of this album. The actual tunes (yes, I know, the important bit) are sound, particularly in the first half.
There’s also a real believability to the voice. Christopher Salveter’s vocal has genuine presence, a rich, unhurried solidity to it, which I think gives this album a core of emotional resonance. When someone sings in a voice which feels as natural as this it just lends that extra bit of charisma to what they say, and that’s one of the greatest assets Judson Clairborne have.
Judson Claiborne – Twilight Spirit
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Judson Claiborne – One Hundred More Than One Hundred Times
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