If debut albums are supposed to be the sound of an artist finding their feet, finding their sound, finding their way into the musical world, then Music By Jeremy certainly didn’t get the memo. But then, as we find increasingly in the modern age, this is music made by someone who’s been around the creative block a few times but, for whatever reason, is only just heading off down the route of recording his music. A debut album doesn’t always equate to someone just starting out, and that has never been more true than here.
As the title indicates, this is the second installment of an album, more accurately, the second side (in old money) of a double album to follow: six succulent and satisfying songs to get us to the halfway point.
‘Do Birds Sing the News’ kicks us off, lush ripples of acoustica ebb and flow, a rich sound which belies the fact that this is just the product of voice and guitar, poise and lyrical poignancy, sonic potency and percussive sounds all coming just from these two instruments. ‘So Cold’ is a beguiling song, for many reasons – the inherent darkness, the almost arabesque orchestrations, and not least the occasional Robert Plant-like vocal phrasing. I wasn’t expecting that.
‘Moving On’ is where Music by Jeremy shows us just what he can do with those six strings; flamenco-infused flourishes are scattered through a shimmering folk-scape, and ’4 O’clock Train’s growing pace and energy are the perfect bridge for what comes next. And what comes next is unabashed rock and roll, shot through with delicate, intriguing, and intricate lulls.
Things round off with ‘Ideonella Sakaiensis’, a delicate and spacious chiming folk-pop scape, and given that it takes as its theme a plastic-eating microbe, and then expands and extrapolates through the idea of spontaneous creativity and instinct over logic, probably the most unique narrative in popular music…ever.
You might expect, with 12 songs now in place thanks to these first two releases, the standard to drop here and there, but even though this delicious dozen wanders far across the musical landscape, few, if any, feel like anything other than a potential single. Not bad for a debut album, dontcha think.
