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Author: rogier
Date: 12-14-04 16:28
The review below caught my attention about half an hour ago and nothing else has happened since then. I'm still listening to the songs! They're addictive. Anyone know anything about an album? I'd like to purchase it online as I'm located in the netherlands. Thanks!
rogier
www.vanessacarlton.info
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REVIEW-Jaymay's Promo Disc
So what would prompt us to do something like review a three-song promo disc? Well, for starters, it would have to be from one of the most exciting, innovative and emotionally invigorating artists we've ever seen. Secondly, we'd have to have a reviewer like Rob Rabiee as enamoured as we are by the musical stylings of young Ms. Jaymay.
With Jaymay appearing tonight at Pianos, we decided to hold off on introducing you to the Jaymay promo until now (she released it about a month ago, also at Pianos). We hope you'll forgive us for the delay. Read on...
Review:
The Jaymay Promo Disc
By: Rob Rabiee
JayMay's generation of female soft pop songsters are damned to stand forever in the shadows of Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, and "That Chick from Belle & Sebastian." This Holy Trinity of Girl Vocal Pop have, more than any set of singers since the "girl pop" luminaries of the early 60s (Ronettes, Cilla Black, the Shangri-La's, etc.), left an indelible stamp on the tone and texture of modern music. Vanessa Carlton and her wicked cadre of pale look- and sound-alikes haunt the decrepit VH-1 mansion at or around the witching hour, and most every open mic is guaranteed to sport a Mann-alike strumming, swooning, humming, and bubbling over with effervescent vocal trills and personal lyrics that would make even Joni Mitchell groan in disbelief. We mustn't neglect, on the other side of the spectrum, the Le Tigre/Sleater-Kinney/Ani DiFranco triumverant, responsible for more olive green military pants, black tank-tops, and shaved heads than a Neo-Nazi compound in Oregon (sorry, Portland League of Racial Purity -- you just don't have enough pop capital to spark a trend.) Women of Generation Fill-in-the-Blank, the powers that be have given you a clear choice: boring and confessional or boring and radical. Take your pick.
JayMay's three-track promo, then, is a breath of fresh air in the stagnant world of the female singer-songwriter, a slice of piano-oriented pop that dares to stand out from the great granola gang and overflow with ebulient, mind-bogglingly catchy pop in the tradition of...well, you know who. Opener "On & On" apes the opening piano stab of the Fabs's "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" before settling into a quiet, autumnal vamp with effectively subtle harmonies and a stellar vocal performance from the singer. "Over My Head" is a charmingly baroque guitar-and-tinkerbell concoction, amazingly sweet but managing to steer clear of all-out tweedom.
"Blue Skies" is the closest JayMay gets to falling into the Apple-Mann world, but she skirts the edges of imitation with grace and tact, creating from the obvious influences a gentle, melancholic ballad. In some theoretically perfectly Sundance-winning indie flick, this song would accompany the moment when the protagonist, a pretty girl in New York, would come to whatever realization it is the screenwriter (doubtlessly an ugly boy in New York) has cooked up for her: hands on her head but eyes rolling slowly towards the sky, the protagonist stands, sighs, and strolls with hands thrust in her pockets through a lavishly filmed Central Park in autumn. Or something like that.
The songwriting on these three tracks, as strong as it is, is overshadowed by the beauty and control of JayMay's voice, the tender way she has of infusing each note with a kernel of earnestness that comes off as neither overly whimsical nor heavy-handed. For evidence of this vocal prowess, check out the moment in "On & On" when she sings "window pane," and marvel at how someone can execute on record what would look on the page: "...every window p^!aane!" The pop of the 'P,' the exuberance in the line, the confidence in the melody: there's an almost Nilssonian texture to the vocals on this song. And I'm a sucker for Nilsson.
Long story short, the promo is tremendous and portends very good things for the forthcoming full-length. So long as JayMay errs towards subtlety, understated instrumentation, and sweetly encircling melodies, she'll have a hell of a career ahead of her.
source: http://www.villagebroadsheet.com/content/view/120/
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Author: WES
Date: 12-15-04 17:58
rogier, waar in Nederland? JAYMAY wordt gemanaged door een Nederlander. toevallig?
rogier wrote:
> The review below caught my attention about half an hour ago and
> nothing else has happened since then. I'm still listening to
> the songs! They're addictive. Anyone know anything about an
> album? I'd like to purchase it online as I'm located in the
> netherlands. Thanks!
>
> rogier
> www.vanessacarlton.info
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Author: ROGIER
Date: 12-16-04 11:02
ROGIER,
i am currently recording 4 songs w/ the same producer, EYTAN OREN.
the cd will be available on january 14, 2005.
send me your name/address to get what will prob. be the first jaymay cd to reach the netherlands . . .
<3 JAYMAY
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Author: rogier
Date: 12-19-04 17:11
WES wrote:
> rogier, waar in Nederland?
Hi Wes,
I just moved to Amsterdam. You?
WES wrote:
> JAYMAY wordt gemanaged door een Nederlander. toevallig?
Cool! Wie is 't? Zolang het niet Henk-Jan Smits is komt alles goed.
rogier
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Author: rogier
Date: 12-19-04 17:19
ROGIER wrote:
> ROGIER,
>
> i am currently recording 4 songs w/ the same producer, EYTAN
> OREN.
Did I say that? I should have my GP look into this developing scizophrenia of mine... ;)
> the cd will be available on january 14, 2005.
> send me your name/address to get what will prob. be the first
> jaymay cd to reach the netherlands . . .
That would be awesome! Thanks. I feel kinda special now..., you know getting the cd before anyone else here..., even before your manager (Wes just told me he's dutch as well).
*goes to mail a certain someone*
rogier
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Author: Samantha
Date: 12-21-04 16:01
Fabulous review! Very rad. Can't wait for the show January 14. Definitely will be there
xo,
who else?
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Author: JAYMAY
Date: 12-22-04 11:09
thats my sammy
no no i dont mean mammy
thats my sammy girl!
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