It's exciting to be able to get fully behind a debut album, in this case Houston Davis Jones' Songs for Existence. The must have a soft spot for his guitar, to make it sound so sweet. Sometimes he tries to do old-school slow, swinging song, and it's not quite what he excells at...but he makes up for any imperfections with perfect moment after perfect moment, "Variations on an Interlude" for example. "Different Hair, Different Shoes" is a good-natured song about change, and one of my favorites on the album. Jones describes his interest in "return song to it's beautiful origins as an offshoot of classical composition," which he succeeds beautifully in during "Waltz for December."As for sound-a-likes, I'm pretty sure he'd fit in equally in a playlist of Gerald Garcia and Jack Johnson at his sweetest. Sometimes he channels Elliot Smith at least dour, Simon and Garfunkel in Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, a bit too much of Jens Lekman, or just enough of Sea Wolf.
Houston Davis Jones - Different Hair, Different Shoes (highly rec'd)
Houston Davis Jones - Variations on an Interlude (download or die!)
Buy Songs for Existence on iTunes
Houston Davis Jones' website/myspace
Labels: houston davis jones, review
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I loooove this, thanks for pointing it out