Jon Amor - Remote Control (2020)
Jon doesn’t seem to do many solo albums, though he is one of those artists with seemingly more pies than fingers, but Remote Control has seemed to come round fairly quickly since Colour In The Sky; due no doubt to lockdown etc.
Ever the chameleon, this time round Jon has given us something "pop-ier" than usual; somewhere between Prince and Bowie. It’s catchy, (Song And Dance), intense, but not claustophobic (57961 - That’s My Number) but Jon still knows how to rock out (Robot Skin & Moonraker) and when to pull back with the more acoustic Peppercorn and Do-Bop-Bop, the latter I think would work well with a soft reggae feel….? Some nice touches of [electronic] horns through the album too.
In all, as my penultimate album of 2020, a good way to see out the year as it sort of sums Jon up - someone you don’t see all that often, but invariably a treat when he does show.
Steve Hill - Desert Trip (2020)
The bones of this album were laid some years ago when Steve spent several weeks in a camper-van in the Californian desert; it’s only due to the unique circumstances of the pandemic this year that the notes were revisited and this album was fleshed out, as it were.
More acoustic in it’s roots than Steve’s other works, these are definitely “lonesome cowboy anthems” but more of the caravette than chuck-wagon and more than once, Steve has enlisted the back-up of a very subtle horn section. probably one of his strongest albums to date, the juxtaposition of the self-imposed isolation of the desert and the loneliness of lockdown strikes an interesting balance with a zeitgeist anthem Gotta Be Strong and the “twang-fest” that is Judgment Day.
Great stuff; like the desert landscape, not beautiful yet irresistible
When life gives you lemons; don't make lemonade.
Give back the lemons. Why were the lemons free? What's wrong with the lemons?
Do Not trust the lemons...
