Hailing from Walsall, John J Presley is a musician currently based in Brighton, whose music for me would equate to Mississippi Delta Blues. His debut album “As The Night Draws In” was released at the beginning of last year and he now has a lockdown release “Albany Sessions” which explores new sounds and ideas for a series of newly penned tracks alongside some fresh takes of past releases.
The album opens with `Lines` an instrumental piece with what sounds similar to a resonator guitar giving it a wonderfully dystopian feel, think Ry Cooder Paris Texas era. There`s a reworking of `Exhale And Go` a track on JJP`s debut album. It`s was written when he was still living in London, experiencing pretty bad anxiety, and was driving around the capital at its busiest after a string of late nights. There`s a much more assertive feel about this version where the vocals are almost preached.
The traditional gospel song `In My Time Of Dying` popularised on Led Zeppelin`s Physical Graffiti album is almost unrecognisable here but that to me is the beauty of this version. The way the vocals are delivered there`s almost a recognition of the protagonist`s passing and a pleading for redemption. The guitar riffs add another sense of apprehension to this offering. There`s almost a Tom Wait`s texture to this updated version of `True Love Waits` which slides from sung lyrics to spoken word quite naturally. An unnerving but powerful declaration of love that gains a darker intensity than the version previously released.
`Grail` has a truly hypnotic intensity about it, another instrumental track with an almost loop effect running throughout, thoroughly mesmerising. We enjoy an almost stripped back reworking of `Dance With Me` that has a quite teasing effect of making you feel that it`s gonna break out but doesn`t. we enjoy some frustrating taunts along the way, which leave you desiring more.
`Golden Lines` is another quite spellbinding instrumental which I felt induced an air of calm within my soul, extremely intoxicating. If the previous track gave a sense of wellbeing, `Heat And Bone` had almost the opposite effect. A further instrumental that gave a sense of impending not malevolence but something quite bad on the horizon.
`Sunday Service` was an interesting composition with a constant drumbeat leading the pace and some delightful clarinet swathes and guitar riffs with lyrics that seemed to allude to lustful intentions. There`s another reimagining with `On A Sunday (reprise)` which isn`t that far removed from the original and retains that edgy, tense but perfectly melodic atmosphere, an off-kilter reaffirmation of unrequited devotion.
`Rising Through Colour` was another superbly disconcerting piece with a drumbeat which seemed akin to a heartbeat throughout with some thundering guitar riffs and deep vocals relating lyrics in a style not far removed from the beat poets. In `Sweet Super` an slight adaptation of `Sweet Superstition` from five years ago the lyrics could seemingly relate to the current times during this global pandemic. Indeed, the track opens with “Well this year has been so heavy, on the soul” and goes on to relate to time waiting for no man, fate and seeking divine guidance, all against a background of a compelling resonating guitar riff.
The album closes with `Riders` the final reshaped composition that was written during a road trip through the Californian desert Death Valley. JJP wanted to replicate that feeling of space and grandness in the song, the beauty of the landscape. A stunningly dark but alluring interpretation to close out this release.
They say that from darkness shines light and that`s one way I would equate John J Presley`s “Albany Sessions” because lockdown has allowed this artist time to write some new compositions but also allow us to listen to his reimagining of previous released tracks. This is a dark, almost disconcerting listen at times but has an absorbing tender beauty at the same time. An enchanting and seductive work of art.
Rating 9.5 / 10
