This is the debut offering from Joe Kennedy (the onetime keyboardist for Macy Gray) and it is an album packed with sunshine pop, but without a hint of the eternally annoying Mika sound. In fact, regardless of whether happy pop is your thing, this is how happy go lucky pop songs should be made. Often where creators of this kind of pop music get it wrong is that they cross the line between lush, joyful songs into the realm of annoying, meaningless pop that might be incredibly catchy but it is an annoyance that you can’t get the song out of your head for 10 straight hours rather than it being any good.
Joe Kennedy is not an artist that I would choose to go out and buy and this is not an album I will be picking to listen to on many occasions, but he has produced an album full of Californian, laid back pop that is relaxing and well written. It is music to chill to. Music to listen to on a hot summer’s day when thinking is too much like effort. Joe Kennedy is a Californian based artist and he is clearly influenced by the Californian hippy spirit we read so much about. This album is similar in sound to BC Camplight, an album I reviewed earlier in the year and there are touches of Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach in there.
Songs such as
Melissa,
age 4 and
11.11 are beautiful. If Joe Kennedy was playing on a small stage on the white sands of a Californian beach as the sun set whilst I had a fruit cocktail in my hand, I would certainly be enjoying myself. The songs are all about unattainable, elusive love, but they are not self-pitying or self-indulgent, They are just one man’s view of love lost and love that is out of reach, of yearning and of discovery. This is an album where the lyrics are just as important as the music and the sound, in an era where lyrics often appear to be superfluous to the general sound of a track.
Reviewing releases from artists that are unknown to you sometimes means that you find yourself listening to an artist or genre that is surprisingly interesting and enjoyable. Certainly Joe Kennedy is an artist that I am unlikely to have stumbled across without writing this review, but I am glad that I did. The Californian psychedelic 60s sound when done well is enjoyable and relaxing. It is a good contrast to the guitar based music I often listen to. This is not an album that will shout and scream at a listener to give it a chance, but it is an album full of sparkle and fizz.
This album was released in 2006 and is available through Neon Tetra Records at
www.neontetrarecords.com Two new tracks not on this album can be heard at Joe Kennedy’s MySpace site at
www.myspace.com/joekennedy
