Music Review // Noah Francis Johnson – Life and Times
There is a place for
reflection in music and, indeed, without it there are many songs we would never
have heard. This debut solo release from Noah Francis Johnson is similarly
reflective in that slow-mo movie rain type of way.
Just like rain, in fact,
this album is one that tinkles its way into your ears on the beautiful wave of
piano keys. As a whole, Life and Times is slow burner of a record. On first
listen it floats past on a melodic cloud, casting gazes at you from the
distance, but as the album develops it gets much more instantaneous in its
arrangement.
Pitched right on the edge
of the beautiful but oft-misunderstood genres of cocktail jazz and confessional
and straight out sophisticated pop music it may not be for everybody looking
for hipster swing to their music but that approach would be inappropriate on
songs such as these. Written with Johnson’s own hand, the songs are
introspective and listenable, keeping the level set at the very personal
throughout.
This is music for a
darkened, intimate stage with little other than a guitar and piano to keep the
words company. Listened to as a whole the album loses something, with its oft-gentle
flow, but taken separately there is much to enjoy; the songs often standing better
alone than as one of a cohesive whole. Greyfeather steers on the right side of
country, its literate lyrics and Native American music outro proving a highlight.
Similarly, the deadpan but intriguing humour and piano melodies of Man In The
UFO are highly entertaining but merge into the rest of the album far too
easily.
Title track Life and Times
is a song writing highlight in itself, the emotive lyrics and sensitively
arrangements saving any slide into mawkish territory that so many ballads stray
into far too often. Valentines On Fire also, is a perfectly composed narrative
of a love lost that pits Johnson’s excellent voice against a very cool piano
backing that keeps your ears for the full duration.
An excellent confessional
pop album then, that works better in chunks than as a whole but that’s always the way with songs like
these. Many excellent moments that just about gels with each other but shines much
more on their own terms.
Reviewed by Sebastian
Gahan. Life and Times is release 24/02/2014 via Last Ten Records Ltd.
