Album – Arrivals and Departures – Jay Pea

Posted by admin on January 11th, 2007

I love music that harkens back to a simpler time. Simple melodies, with words that actually mean something. Jay Pea was a classic case of hearing something and my ears just pricking up. I often have great difficulty when people ask me what kind of music I like. My tastes are as varied as weather, but when I hear something good, it doesn’t matter what genre it is, it just has to engage and captivate and I’m sold.

Whenever I listen to this album, I always have visions of summer days by the sea, playing with my children. The kind of day you just don’t want to end. That vision certainly hangs in my minds-eye for a while, as this album has 13 tracks and each of them flow effortlessly from one to the next.

This is just another amazing example of the amazing talent in Canada. It’s very much in the mould of Tim Buckley and Leonard Cohen the late 60’s and early 70’s era. The album opens with “A Day in March”, giving a good indication of what’s to come. A man his guitar and light accompaniment. Every time I hear “Silver River” that classic song Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head comes to mind. “All Your Denials” is the song that brought Jay Pea to my attention and is firmly amongst my favorite tracks on the album. “Tower of Slow”, with it’s wonderful understated use of the flute has echos of the great Simon and Garfunkel song, El Condo Paso. Although I love the heavy overtones of Leonard Cohen on “Delilah’s Dream”, the album here takes a kind of emotional dip. Indeed the next song “Marbled Skies” also has this darker feel, which for me is out of character with the rest of the album. The songs that follow however return to the more relaxed and upbeat. “Orange Tree” in particular has that really infectious drum beat and guitar. “Southernmost” is another track up there with my favorite tracks from this album. The last two tracks “Happier on the Road” and “Mr Sam” round the album off with a nice upbeat sound.

Conclusion : A great album with some great songs. I much prefer the more mellow tracks, but all of them are great examples of songwriting. An accomplished and very special album.

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