Johnny Blue Skies - Passage du Desir (Album Review)
Monday, 29 July 2024
Written by Jacob Brookman
Photo: Semi Song
In a recent episode of the popular podcast ‘The Rest is Entertainment’, quiz show producer and all round brainbox Richard Osman presented his own study of UK number ones in the 21st Century. Though the exact stats were sometimes a little shaky the general gist was unmistakable: since the year 2000, popular music has pivoted wildly away from bands and groups, and towards individual performers.
Perhaps audiences relate better to individual emotions, or maybe solo artists are easier to manage, or maybe it’s something else. Either way, this focus can place beguiling pressure on recording artists, challenging their individual personality and sense of self.
For country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson, a solution is to create a new persona. As he puts it himself on Scooter Blues: “...gonna hop on my scooter and go down to the store / When people say are you him, I’ll say not anymore.”
That said, his first LP under the name Johnny Blue Skies actually sounds pretty familiar. Not only is ‘Passage du Desir’ packed with superb, relatable country music underscored by flashes of rock adventurism, it most closely resembles Simpson’s seminal record (up to now), “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth”.
It’s poetic and thoughtful songwriting, hugely autobiographical and absolutely machine tooled for solo drives across the countryside. It gives you space to think with lyric writing that has Proustian reverie and magnificent pastoral elegance.
Whether reminiscing on the fate of a former lover who has passed on Jupiter’s Faerie or querying ‘Why are you so afraid of little old me?’ on Mint Tea, this is a brilliant album of exceptional creativity, depth and self-awareness. ‘Passage du Desir’ is the sound of an artist who has re-found themselves by inventing an alter-ego. And they say Americans don’t do irony.
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