Liquid Sunshine

Chronique

If Keziah Jones' first two albums were very distinct but consistent within themselves, Liquid Sunshine sounds more disjointed and lacks that internal unity. It's still idiosyncratic, but in a different way -- not a bad capsule description of Keziah Jones as an artist -- and may be a transitional effort, with the mood and style changing abruptly from song to song. The opener, "Hello Heavenly," immediately sets the moodier, sparer tone -- there's far less frenetic rhythm strumming and stings pop up prominently as a melodic blanket on four songs. There's a fair amount of scatted vocals which show how Jones fashions his melodies from sound first. The dreamy "Don't Forget" segues into "Phased," which almost has a "Pictures of Matchstick Men" '60s psychedelic rock feel with strings, while "I'm Known" is uncharacteristically very simple and direct. The title track has up-tempo parts powered by driving drums that suddenly shift to unaccompanied sections, while the acoustic guitar thrust of "New Brighter Day" boasts some of that old-chopping funk rhythmic complexity. "Functional," with Jones singing over only his own bass, really recalls the early style, and "Stabilah" sounds like a field-holler Afro-blues with handclaps and background moans behind Jones' guitar riff. Liquid Sunshine is either a more thought-out disc or somewhat incomplete in the sense of material that hasn't been lived with long enough to develop a coherent sound and/or direction. There are some strong individual songs, but the whole fails to measure up to previous efforts by Keziah Jones.

© Don Snowden /TiVo