Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun // Death
Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun's folk/punk fusion - is it a combination that can work for a whole album?
Release Date: 9th April 2012
Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun // Death (Xtra Mile Recordings)
On paper this album ticks all the boxes; folk-inspired melodies with gravelly vocals that echo the distorted guitar, giving an edge to what would otherwise be a very soothing and laid back collection of songs. Unfortunately there’s something about Jim Lockey And The Solemn Sun’s 'Death' that feels like you’ve missed something – but what, I’m not quite sure.
With politically motivated lyrics reminiscent of Rise Against’s 'Prayer of the Refugee' and composition that harks back to 'American Idiot' with a folk twist, this album seems to try to bring together so many influences that at times the album appears to be rather disparate and yet at the same time predictable.
Each song individually is pretty good. The lyrics are thought provoking and interesting, and the accompanying music largely moves well between sombre acoustics and growling distortion, but a few tracks into the album this all becomes rather tiring. The song structures become repetitive to the point of being indistinguishable, making it difficult to be enthused about every new track you hear. Despite the great hope I had for this album bringing together two sounds that I love, I think this really has been its downfall. The folk-ish openings are good and so are the distorted alternative rock endings, but trying to pull this off track after track soon becomes tedious for the listener.
In short, this album is has a good collection of tracks but the collection as a whole that lets it down. Listen to the first track, listen to something else and them come back to next song if you really don’t want to find yourself skipping through what would otherwise be good songs.
5/10 Jodie
