Wesley Jeremiah - Wesley Jeremiah EP (Self Released)
5/5
By: Dickon Stone
The opening few moments of this EP set the tone for what is to be expected; there's a husky rawness - sounding like this record has been made in someone's bedroom; pouring heartfelt vocals into glass jars of nostalgic memory. There are also soothing chord progressions and a very real gut-love-belly-butterfly-heartache-stirring-up-of-things by a perfect and tasteful, and in fact delicious, addition of sustained piano beneath the high vocals. It's called 'Red Hands', it introduces Wesley Jeremiah, and I delve deeper into the mystery...
'Gun Song' feels like a declaration; military-esque use of the snare; slow expansion of piano and guitar parts, breakdowns to quiet, acoustically strummed, hard yet somehow dry and muted guitar that builds and builds with 'la la la's and falsetto 'ooo's before dropping back into the delightful husky, engaging lyrics and vocals.
Opening with very solid toms really high up in the mix like the rolling of thunder or war; 'Scotland' next rumbles into my ears. Picked and plucked acoustic melodies and still those drums grow and pull me in to a kind of melancholy head nodding frenzy that I feel I should probably be in slow motion for... and then comes the breakdown; Wesley Jeremiah show here that their ability to drop the track into a riotous climax is second to none. This is like the acoustic-alternative-folk-pop equivalent of Mogwai, yet truly, impressively, progressive; the drums really bring this track home to roost; giant footsteps on the way home to somewhere I used to live but don't anymore; that kind of memory montage you only find in the cinema.
'White Lie' I notice uses many of the same lyrics as 'Red Hands', which seems bizarre but works so well that it is hard to criticise this particularly ballsy move. 'White Lie' has rippling piano and those heavy chords that have something of Death Cab For Cutie's 'Brothers in a Hotel Bed' to them... This, teamed with squealing metallic sounds resonating from beneath the main melody - it's all so smooth and soulful, but with a darkness I can't quite figure out.
'Darlene' really excels as a slow, honest, love song; in a totally different way from previous tracks, this one seems to build like some kind of instinct filled emotive beast; unrelenting and set on making my heart ache in some kind of way that I don't quite understand; like when Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson hug at the end of Lost In Translation. Just... beautiful.
I suppose that a tiny fragment of a second in the following track, 'Don't Wanna Go' gives some kind of impression of what Wesley Jeremiah seem to achieve; just before the vocals begin, a great, sorrowful, longing sigh with a little reverb on it rings in my ears. And the thing is, this doesn't sound like the sigh of a bored singer, more the sigh of someone who is about to let it all out - as if the Wesley Jeremiah EP is some kind of therapy; a therapy we can all indulge in. Lines like "...Suits were made for men not boys" resonate through me with some solid goose-bump action.
The "oooh"-ing and falsetto background vocals on high reverb that ghostly whisper through these tracks are not too far from what Fleet Foxes are bringing to the mainstream at the moment. There is something extremely satisfying and calming, soothing even, in this music.
The final track 'Everybody Requires A Plan', like 'Gun Song', appears to be some kind of declaration; a look towards times to come; and if 'Wesley Jeremiah' plan to carry on like this then we will all be in for a treat in the not too distant future.
Absolutely listen to this band. I cannot stress enough how lovely this music is.
Artists in this article: Wesley Jeremiah
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