Jason Simon - Jason Simon (2010)

Welcome to the psychedelic wild west
You know maybe my teachers were right when they said quality rather than quantity. That’s even more so when there’s space for that work to breathe, albeit in a topsy turvy sort of way. Some times you need records to be slow, calming, and taking their time to build, before burning into your (psychedelic) mind.

This is what Jason Simon does on his debut solo album. The majority of the tracks on his self-titled album, is slow, calming, has space for the songs to breathe, and there’s only 10 tracks on here, and each have a pure quality about them. Apologies for the rambling, but this is what this album makes you do, as you trip out on the beauteousness of it.

Jason has gotten quite used to this understated kind of quality with a psychedelic edge with his time as singer of Dead Meadow, essentially an American equivalent of Super Furry Animals.

Except on Jason’s debut solo album, there’s less of the psychedelia, although it still burbles away under his woozy rambling, and more of the rustic Americana charm. Not to get to stereotypical but you could fall asleep and wake up transported to the Rocky Mountains in the Mid-West of America. After the first few charming tracks, including the glossy ‘Good Hope Road’, we then get the meaty, gutsy and gusty, country blues rock swagger of ‘The Dust Does Blow’, which blows of the cobwebs a bit.

This is not a trendy or ‘cool’ album in anyway shape or form, although it is rather cool. And there’s not an electro beat or synth or auto tuned vocal in sight or within ear shot. Instead there’s bewitching and rocking guitars, a gorgeous voice telling his tales with his heartfelt songs which have oodles of atmosphere and a shed load of charm. But maybe the next X Factor winner could release a cover of ‘I Let It Go’ to go too Christmas number 1.