https://gregjacquin.bandcamp.com/album/clocks-slow-down //
"Clocks Slow Down" is an album that can play a trick on your ears the first time that you hear it. When it first starts, and the first time I listened to it, I thought it had this Americana sound to it. Through the first few songs, it had this feeling of country but not like Garth Brooks. It was a little of that Wallflowers / Eels feelings as the organs came in. There is a sadness, a desperation to the melodies as well, which falls in line with it being country. The third song- "Coffee" has strings and it sounds closer to Tom Waits and Bob Dylan and then as the pianos come out on the fourth song all I can hear is the blues.
It's odd how I had this pegged, at first, as being Americana/country and then after listening to it all the way through a few times, I don't hear those sounds as much anymore. I mostly just hear this as some sort of blues rock. "Higher, for example, has that Tom Petty / Eric Clapton feel to it. Overall, for reasons I can't quite explain, I also get a strong Counting Crows vibe from Greg Jacquin. It may or may not be because of the song called "Time Again".
The guitar work on this is exceptional. It's not one of those albums where the guitar shows off with a lot of solos, like "Look what I can do!" but it is back there adding to the songs and it has its part to play but it does it so well-- it's not easy to have the guitar become one with the other instruments yet be so powerful. It's a balance not everyone can find but you will hear it in these songs and so you should take some time to appreciate it.
Many of the songs have lyrics based on the titles, so if you read the title you can kind of gather what the song might be about. "Story Policy", for example, does have a line in it about how if you break it you buy it. "Barry" is a song about Obama and not to offend anyone who has done this, but I'd so much rather hear someone sing about how much they miss Barry, as this song does, than hear songs that are anti-Trump. It's more about casting positivity I suppose and not giving that other guy attention since he seems to seek it more than anything else.
"Jim Carrey" is a dreamy song that says "I want to marry / Someone like Jim Carrey". I understand how one might think that it'd be great to marry Jim Carrey- and I'm not denying anyone that- but one of the reasons for this is that Jim Carrey is funny, which is true, but sometimes these funny people are also the most troubled. I call into point Robin Williams. I worked at this job once and a woman told me she liked me because I was always smiling. I didn't realize until that moment in my life it was because I use that as a mask, you know, appear fine on the outside so no one knows what's going on inside. Maybe it's not every comedian, but tread with caution.
The song called "Jim Carrey" is followed by a song called "Hedgehog", which is not about Sonic (perhaps the most famous hedgehog) but I do find the fact that these two songs are back to back interesting because of that Sonic the Hedgehog movie they're making and, yes, Jim Carrey is in it. "Highways & Hotels" ends this album with that feeling of being on the road, like Bob Seger, and this is just one of the albums which can find the beauty in every day life (and Jim Carrey) and so if you live life every day you will be able to relate to this. The sound seemed to fool me, but I still enjoy it and think it's not overly any genre but that combination of a few which will appeal to most everybody.
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