Jubal John: Mr Right Now
Details
Genre: Alternative, Blues rock, RockPros:
John composes smart songs with singer-songwriter frame of mind and classic '60's appealCons:
A few production qualms and the far-flung closing track ("Churches") bring down the mood on this adventureInside Jubal John’s British Invasion-meets-Bama debut
Inside Jubal John’s British Invasion-meets-Bama debut
The surprise sleeper of Mr Right Now is “Never Had a Love,” the longest offering on the album capping at five minutes. It plays like a trippy Allman Brothers trot and finds a hippy climax halfway into it with John’s memorable fuzzy guitar solo and violin exercises from Bethany Borg. “Women and Cars” also stands tall for its melancholic-to-humorous lyrics inside its bluesy arrangement, but grips tightly to proverbial bait: “The meaning of life is the meaning you bring/The song of your soul is the one you sing.”
With hardly a dry cut in ear shot, Mr Right Now shines as an excellent companion piece, or an extension, to golden jukebox melodies. Production values, exaggerated vocal extortion on the psychedelic pill of “Churches” and the double-tracking on some of John’s vocals tend to bring down the grandeur of the experience, but these are relatively small quips when considering the weight of the honestly good material. This disc has been baked with lots of heart and validates John’s musical prowess as a song maker and instrumentalist.