{"id":1918,"date":"2009-07-26T21:49:49","date_gmt":"2009-07-26T21:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejoycollective.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2009-07-26T22:22:08","modified_gmt":"2009-07-26T22:22:08","slug":"album-review-jimi-alexander-the-satellites-burn-a-little-brighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/review\/releases\/album-review-jimi-alexander-the-satellites-burn-a-little-brighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimi Alexander & The Satellites – Burn A Little Brighter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jimi-jc-pic-copy3\"I\u2019ve put Jimi Alexander & The Satellites<\/strong><\/a> on a few times now, mainly because I love them.\u00a0 I can never help writing \u201cRyan Adams-esque\u201d on the gig posters though.\u00a0 Once upon a time this would\u2019ve been a compliment.\u00a0 Now I should probably write \u201cThis is the sound of Ryan Adams removing his head from his own arse, taking a good look around, grabbing the bottle of whiskey from his bedside table with both hands, consuming it and writing some fucking awesome alt.country songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe I should\u2019ve left that until the end.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not a dull moment on this album, opener Baby Don\u2019t <\/em>sets the mood, continued with New York City Never Came<\/em>.\u00a0 Third track, Queen Of Denmark<\/em> cranks the album up a notch.\u00a0 The song charts a long distance relationship, \u2018every time I see you, my heart skips a beat\u2019, and the feeling you get when meeting up with someone you can\u2019t have.\u00a0 It has a Felice Brothers feel to it and that Dylan like shuffling beat driving it along.\u00a0 The chorus almost makes me believe that love isn\u2019t something mythical, only written about in 19th century literature.\u00a0 Almost.<\/p>\n

Last Chance Saloon<\/em> takes the pace back down, with only Jimi\u2019s mournful vocals and acoustic guitar present until cellist Lucy Burke joins the maudlin party with her vocals.\u00a0 Held In My Arms<\/em> continues in this vein until the arrival of slide guitar.\u00a0 Now slide guitar makes everything sound brilliant but this particular number sounds like it\u2019s being sung while slumped over a bar after one too many at the end of a night out.\u00a0 Your mates have gone home but you\u2019re not quite ready to, it\u2019s just you, the barman and one last beer.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll put a treatment for a video together.\u00a0 The song builds on it\u2019s sparse beginnings with cello, piano and harmonica added to the melting pot and ends with Jimi heading out of the tavern into the night air, with jacket slung over shoulder, home to his true love.\u00a0 It would in the video anyway.<\/p>\n

Wayward Soul<\/em> revs the engine a little and actually sounds something like a country Oasis.\u00a0 This is a good thing.\u00a0 Sort of\u00a0 ‘The Girl In The Dirty Shirt ‘with Victoria Williams on backing vocals.\u00a0 The title track should also appeal to a crossover crowd.\u00a0 The term alt.country tends to scare people off but Burn A Little Brighter<\/em>, with it\u2019s \u2018I\u2019m so in love with you\u2019 refrain, could easily be the song to slow dance to at the school disco or could replace Snow Patrol\u2019s more \u2018lighter in the air\u2019 moments on mother\u2019s car stereos everywhere.\u00a0 All this without it sounding any less like it was made by whiskey soaked Steve Earle fans.<\/p>\n

One Long Winter<\/em> and Celtic Legend<\/em> are good songs in their own right (indeed, Jimi sounds like he\u2019s going to burst into tears on the latter), they just suffer the misfortune of being sandwiched in between the aforementioned potential festival closing anthem and the epic album closer, Hallelujah I\u2019m Alive<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hallelujah is a beautiful song, an ode to life, which begins with the sound of waves breaking on a shore.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019m just really open to suggestion but when the vocals recede seven minutes in (I did say it was epic), and you can hear the waves re-emerge beneath the cello, violin and guitar outro, I wanted to venture outside and appreciate the natural world that surrounds us.\u00a0 Unfortunately it was pissing down and my garden is made of concrete.<\/p>\n

This album is a lesson in restraint, there maybe six members in the band but they\u2019re only used if they\u2019re needed.\u00a0 There\u2019s no \u2018we\u2019ve got a fuzzbox and we\u2019re going to use it\u2019 attitude here.\u00a0 Many of the songs don\u2019t have bass or drums and three of the tracks were recorded live with just Jimi, Lucy and Mat on guitar.\u00a0 There\u2019s a slightly gothic feel to some of the album, not sinister, just that Sun Kil Moon type darkness, there\u2019s always light at the end of the tunnel though.\u00a0 It feels like there\u2019s quest to get somewhere, to return to your roots, to your love, or just to the place you call home.<\/p>\n

I should start writing \u201cWhiskeytown-esque\u201d on those posters as Ryan Adams hasn\u2019t written anything this good since his mates ran off (OK, maybe Heartbreaker but that would ruin my point).\u00a0 Buy this album and check the band out live where the shackles come off and they rock like Neil Young at an air guitar contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve put Jimi Alexander & The Satellites on a few times now, mainly because I love them.\u00a0 I can never help writing \u201cRyan Adams-esque\u201d on the gig posters though.\u00a0 Once upon a time this would\u2019ve been a compliment.\u00a0 Now I should probably write \u201cThis is the sound of Ryan Adams removing his head from his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[747],"tags":[672],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-releases","tag-jimi-alexander-the-satellites"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}