Raine
12-04-99, 01:16 PM
A friend of mine emailed this review to me... The long awaited, self titled John Taylor CD was released in Japan on November 26, and it was well worth the wait. Taylor's style is hard to describe or put into any one musical category. Not quite rock, not quite pop, but a mix of the two as well as throwing in a bit of alternative, classic, contemporary, techno and a pinch of comedy (Coventry Carol) to nicely round it all out. Taylor's lyrical prowess has grown tenfold (if not more) as has the strength and comfort he seems to feel with his own voice. From such (sometimes) laughably simple lines as "I'm sad and I want my dad" from his 1996 debut solo CD 'Feelings are Good and Other Lies' to verses more complex such as "I'm just an airline ticket to an out of date place/I'm a slice of Americana lying under the dust" from the Air Miles track. A song that fills the listener with the disjointed feeling of "taking off makes motion sickness" as they are drawn deeper into the emotional swirl of the song. Taylor's ability to draw you into his music, whether it be the lyrics or the intricate complexities of the music itself, is almost staggering. In a tremendous departure from the projected anger and pain of his 'Feelings…' CD in which you could empathize and identify with the emotions Taylor had bubbling under the surface; the new CD pulls you directly to the center of the impassioned realm of a changed, seemingly happy man. Whether you identify with the feelings of a man who has rediscovered life doesn't matter. You will by the time you finish listening to the CD. The songs swallow you bit by bit until there is no choice but let go and drown in the wholeness of the album. Also, in an exclusive offer from John Taylor's website (www.trusttheprocess.com), while supplies last, a bonus EP will be given with each new CD ordered (a mere $26 for the Japanese import). This was a specially recorded EP for the Juicy Jeans premiere party in New York this past November. This EP includes two tracks from the full length CD, the title track form the aforementioned debut solo effort "Feelings…" and two others. One of those two is a song called Run Together; recorded specifically for Zip FM radio in Japan (number one on that stations playlist for a period of time). The other is Mister J, originally released on a CD called Meltdown (available now at his website), reworked for the sound of the new millennium (come on, you knew I had to stick that word in there somewhere). Over an hour of musical self-awareness, Taylor's self-titled 1999 solo effort shows that he has all but left his former bandmates choking on the dust of his rebirth.