PJH Studios

Category: Music

Pop, rock, alternative, classical, indie, folk, lo-fi, any thing with a tempo and a beat and some rhythm

  • The Head and the Heart

    A debut album from a Seattle sextet is perfect for those late summer drives at dusk.  The sun fades into the horizon while warm shades of yellow, orange and red light up the sky.  The Head and the Heart’s self titled clocks in at 9 tracks, spanning 35 minutes.  In that time, the harmonies come together, comforting and uplifting with folksy pop arrangements reminiscent of the Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel.  In the Sounds Like section on their MySpace page, they list:  “melodies, harmonies, shakers, foot stomps, beautiful things, epic things.”

    The album begins with a sprightly track, Cats and Dogs with the timbre of Josiah Johnson’s vocals warming up to lead a backing of “ooo-ooo’s” as a kick drum thumps and the rest of the band joins in on the fun.  This seamlessly transitions to the next track, Coeur D’Alene where the keyboards and bass line drive the song’s catchy hook.  The rest of the album has a rhythm, steady and buoyant and never strains.  If anything, the album peaks with Lost In My Mind and glides to a safe landing during the last three tracks, closing with a reverent finale in Heaven Go Easy on Me.

    Here they are performing live for KEXP:

  • Jakob Dylan – Women and Country

    Jakob Dylan’s Women and Country album feels good on the first listen.  There’s no trying too hard, no songs with the familiar country, singer songwriter tropes.  It’s paced well, with diverse arrangements.  Nothing But the Whole Wide World and Holy Rollers for Love stand out.

  • Five for Fighting – Slice

    Five for Fighting’s Slice is more of the same piano pop balladry but with different lyrics. Safe, digestible and unoffensive.

  • Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

    Mumford & Sons Sigh No More paces a contemporary blend of folk, Americana, blue grass and rock across 48 minutes of diverse instrumentation.  Starting slowly with the title track, Sigh No More, the song builds into a foot stomping jam.  The lead vocals seem raw at time, but powerful and emotive with four part harmonies adding coolness to tracks such as The Cave, Winter Winds and Roll Away Your Stone.  Little Lion Man is a rocking, angry song, and Dust Bowl Dance tells a story straight out of Dorthea Lange’s Depression era photos.

    If there’s a comparison, Mumford & Sons could be an edgier Fleet Foxes but with a banjo and darker lyrics.

  • Bob Dylan – Christmas in the Heart

    Christmas In the Heart, by Bob Dylan, is at times reverent (Little Drummer Boy, O’ Come All Ye Faithful, O’ Little Town of Bethlehem), fun (Here Comes Santa Claus) and comical in a lounge act, what the hell kind of way (The Christmas Blues, Must be Santa, Christmas Island). Sure, Christmas in the Heart contains a diverse set of songs and arrangements, but… as a whole comes across as a very skilled granpa playing songs for the grandkids.

  • The Black Keys – Brothers

    Brothers by The Black Keys is a dirty blues rock album. You can hear The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix coming from two guys. With bass and drums leading the way on what seems like every song, it gets a bit repetitive. There’s enough diversity in the arrangements that you can tell the difference between songs but only after a few listens. The Only One, Ten Cent Pistol and I’m Not the One are stand out tracks.

  • Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back

    Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back continues the trend of cover albums. However, Gabriel covers both his peers and those who may have been inspired by him.

    The album begins softly with David Bowie’s Heroes that builds into an aching crescendo. All the songs have a lush, symphonic, orchestral arrangements–strings, pianos, horns–and often to a repetitive degree. Sometimes this works, in covering the Magnetic Fields’ Book of Love, it becomes a tender ballad despite the odd lyrics. Paul Simon’s The Boy in The Bubble and Arcade Fire’s My Body is a Cage become soulless. He closes with Radiohead’s Street Spirit which goes out in a baritone drone.

    Covering songs is always risky, and there are risks on Scratch My Back. They’re interesting choices, but none will reach the level of Johnny Cash remaking Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt.

  • Sleigh Bells – Treats

    Sleigh Bells, creators of my summer album pick, consists of rip roaring guitars and bass heavy beats intertwined with cooing vocals. Treats spans for a few minutes over a half hour, and on first listen, can be overwhelming. It’s loud. Bone rattling loud. Indie kids in their Prius can go head to head with the dude blasting Eminem in their Impala. After the third listen, you can begin to tell the songs about and discover that they’re catchy. I suppose they could be best described as indie-electronic-noise-pop.

    Tell ‘Em sets the tone for what to expect, and Rachel, Rill Rill and Crown on the Ground provide the most accessible and pleasing stretch to play for your friends.