Highlights: Candyfloss, Circling The Sun, English Lady, I Want To Be Around
God, it’s easy to describe bands you don’t even need to describe. Jonny (a silly name, but what can you do; also, I've seen better covers) is a duo of Norman Blake from the Scottish indie darlings Teenage Fanclub and Euros Childs from the Welsh, folksy and overlooked Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (speaking of silly names). Jonny sounds exactly like a cross between TF and GZM – doing something light-hearted and slightly throwawayish.
So Grand Prix or Barafundle it is not. But both men being so talented (I’ve already hinted somewhere that Blake has to be Teenage Fanclub’s best songwriter), Jonny turns out to be a very nice, catchy, humble and feel-good album full of good vibes and sunny tunes. For all their fluffiness “Candyfloss” and, say, “I Want To Be Around” have vocal melodies to kill for. Plus – lots of lovely piano and tasteful acoustic guitars could not hurt anyone.
As a downside, I just have to mention the 10-minute long “Cave Dance”. It starts normally, as a decent enough pop-rocker, but then it turns into this totally unnecessary, monotonous, keyboard-based groove (Childs’ idea, definitely) that just doesn’t know where to end. I’m also not a fan of the straight-faced country send-up “I’ll Make Her My Best Friend” and the charming but a little annoying “Bread” (nice harmonies, though).
So: if you want to sing along, hear something non-pretentious and just feel nostalgic – get this one. My version has a free EP attached as a bonus. Needless to say, it’s more of the same. “Gloria” is amazing.
7/10
God, it’s easy to describe bands you don’t even need to describe. Jonny (a silly name, but what can you do; also, I've seen better covers) is a duo of Norman Blake from the Scottish indie darlings Teenage Fanclub and Euros Childs from the Welsh, folksy and overlooked Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (speaking of silly names). Jonny sounds exactly like a cross between TF and GZM – doing something light-hearted and slightly throwawayish.
So Grand Prix or Barafundle it is not. But both men being so talented (I’ve already hinted somewhere that Blake has to be Teenage Fanclub’s best songwriter), Jonny turns out to be a very nice, catchy, humble and feel-good album full of good vibes and sunny tunes. For all their fluffiness “Candyfloss” and, say, “I Want To Be Around” have vocal melodies to kill for. Plus – lots of lovely piano and tasteful acoustic guitars could not hurt anyone. As a downside, I just have to mention the 10-minute long “Cave Dance”. It starts normally, as a decent enough pop-rocker, but then it turns into this totally unnecessary, monotonous, keyboard-based groove (Childs’ idea, definitely) that just doesn’t know where to end. I’m also not a fan of the straight-faced country send-up “I’ll Make Her My Best Friend” and the charming but a little annoying “Bread” (nice harmonies, though).
So: if you want to sing along, hear something non-pretentious and just feel nostalgic – get this one. My version has a free EP attached as a bonus. Needless to say, it’s more of the same. “Gloria” is amazing.
7/10
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