{"id":850,"date":"2012-08-13T05:10:05","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T10:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=850"},"modified":"2012-08-13T05:10:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T10:10:05","slug":"album-review-stevie-jackson-i-cant-get-no-stevie-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/13\/album-review-stevie-jackson-i-cant-get-no-stevie-jackson\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Stevie Jackson – (I Can\u2019t Get No) Stevie Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belle & Sebastian<\/strong> have long been critics’ darlings, and for good reason. Never the most prolific of groups, the Scottish pop outfit has focused instead on creating works of merit and enduring value. A fairly large group \u2013 seven players \u2013 Belle & Sebastian nonetheless crafted economical, direct ear-candy pop songs in the tradition of Squeeze<\/strong> and Teenage Fanclub<\/strong>, albeit with a softer edge (some might call them \u201ctwee\u201d). Guitarist Stevie Jackson<\/strong> has been with the group since their early days (the mid 90s) and has stepped out for a solo project, clever titled (I Can’t Get no) Stevie Jackson<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The similarities to the Rolling Stones<\/strong> pretty well end right there with the title, however. Sporting a musical approach not wholly dissimilar to his main group, Jackson leans a bit more on keyboard textures for the twelve tunes on what we’ll call (for economy\u2019s sake) Stevie Jackson<\/em>. The drawing-room piano of \u201cPure of Heart\u201d anchors a lovely tune that seem to concern itself with everyday life of a British teen. On the Small Faces<\/strong>-ish \u201cJust, Just So to the Point,\u201d Jackson builds a subdued, slinky tune around a simple Wurlitzer Electric Piano riff; the result is vaguely similar to some of Neil Finn<\/strong><\/a>‘s solo work.<\/p>\n

On \u201cTry Me,\u201d Jackson rocks out. An infectiously poppy song (with keyboard flourishes that sound straight out of \u2013 surprise! \u2013 a Belle & Sebastian record), its chugging electric guitar and insistent tom-tom work leads into a mod guitar solo. But for \u201cRichie Now,\u201d Jackson crafts a lilting pop tune imbued with a gentle Merseybeat flavor. That flavor is hammered home by lyrics that mention the year 1963, and chiming guitar figures.<\/p>\n

The breezy, waltzing pop of \u201cDead Man’s Fall\u201d features some shimmering \u201cdoo-wop-a-bop\u201d backing vocals that elevate what was already a pretty fetching melody to start with. The gentle acoustic textures of \u201cBird’s Eye View\u201d feels like Donovan<\/strong>, or Flight of the Conchords<\/strong> without the comedy. \u201cMan of God\u201d brings back the homespun piano textures, applying them to a should-be-a-hit melody; it’s the most Belle & Sebastian-sounding track on Stevie Jackson<\/em>. The string arrangement and subtle pedal steel work are icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

The folky (UK-style) \u201cKurosawa\u201d evokes visions of the Highland mists. \u201cWhere Do All the Good Girls Go?\u201d makes effective use of handclaps, an evokes a singalong vibe.\u201d The longest track on Stevie Jackson<\/em>, \u201cTelephone Song,\u201d still keeps under the five-minute mark; Jackson’s pop instincts are always brought to bear on the songs, even on this, the most dreamily textured song on the disc. \u201cPress Send\u201d is the goofiest track on the disc, full of sweet, heart-on-the-sleeve sentiments concerning email messages. Its backing chirps of \u201cdon’t send \/ do send\u201d are a delight, and the rollicking piano and intentionally-thin lead guitar suit the tune perfectly. The brief, countryish \u201cFeel the Morning\u201d wraps things up in tuneful fashion; it sounds like a high-quality outtake from Wings<\/strong>‘ Wild Life<\/em>, if you can imagine such a thing.<\/p>\n

To sum up, allow me to engage in the most obvious bit of wordplay: get yourself some (I Can’t Get No) Stevie Jackson<\/em>. You won’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

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Belle & Sebastian have long been critics’ darlings, and for good reason. Never the most prolific of groups, the Scottish pop outfit has focused instead on creating works of merit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}